Claws on wings Claws on wings
“Many people have tried to say that the proof that reptiles evolved into birds is to be found in a fossil bird called Archaeopteryx, which shows claws on its fossilized feathered wings. But all the living birds with claws on their wings are obviously birds! Archaeopteryx and the living “clawed” birds tell us only that some kinds of birds have wing claws and some don’t. Such claws are not something new in birds, and they certainly don’t show that birds with them are any more reptile-like than birds without such claws.” Evolution Exposed, Second Ed., Claws on wings, www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v5/i2/claws.asp
Response to comment [from a "Christian"]: "...Even the untrained eye can see the archaeopteryx skeleton looks more similar to theropods than it does to the highly modified skeleton of modern birds... "
Even the untrained eye can see that birds were created to be birds and reptiles were created to be reptiles. Although Archaeopteryx has reptilian characteristics, it does not mean that it is not a bird. Living birds like the hoatzin have claws on their wings like Archaeopteryx. Archaeopteryx is a bird not a transitional form.
...feather problem.
How do artists decide what an extinct organism should look like?
Response to comment [from a Catholic]: "Anyone can see Alate_One is right. The skeleton of Archie is far more like that of a theropod dinosaur than that of a bird..."
Based on whose drawings? Should you trust artists' representations in science?
[Archaeopteryx] "...lacked feather impressions..."
Who says naturalists and creationists cannot agree?
Response to comment [from a "Christian"]: "I linked you pictures of actual fossils, not just drawings..."
Would a camel skeleton, for example, indicate whether it had one or more humps?
"...[You]...make it look like I said something I did not."
It is not my intention to misrepresent your position. You do not acknowledge that feathers in drawings of dinosaurs are debatable?
"The first obvious inconsistency came to mind while
looking at the evidence for feathers. Sinosauropterxy prima had what appears to
be a dark fuzzy outline surrounding the bones, apparently interpreted as the
trace of hair-like filaments. I must confess that it looked much like the
shading artists will often do around pencil drawings to emphasize the outline of
an important object. The guidebook describes these ‘proto-feathers’ as
feather-like structures.3 It explains that they appear as impressions in the
fine-grained matrix or as a halo of darker, fibrous-like areas, usually at right
angles to the bones, although not always contacting them. Certainly this
evidence is vague. Did some dinosaur have a furry coating, or is this ‘fuzz’
just an artefact of the preservation or recovery process?
Caudipteryx (‘Caudi’, as Dr Willis affectionately nicknamed it) showed some long
fibrous-looking traces in the area of the tail, similar to fossils of thin
reed-like plants. To claim that they are feathers is clearly a statement of
faith in a worldview, not a scientific observation.
The information displayed below Protarchaeopteryx robusta indicated that
detached feathers could be seen in the top left of the slab, but no matter how
closely I looked, I could see no markings in that area consistent with the claim
(compare figures 4 and 5).
Figures 4 and 5. The fossil slab (right—click to enlarge) and interpretative key
(below) for Protarchaeopteryx robusta. Note indication for feathers in top left
of slab.
The only evidence presented for the ‘feathered’ dinosaur, Velociraptor
mongoliensus was a skull. The evolutionary just-so story beneath was amazing.
‘Velociraptor has not yet been found in the Liaoning deposits and its feathers
are not preserved in the Mongolian and Chinese deposits where it occurs.
However, because all its close relatives had feathers, it is most likely that
Velociraptor did too.’
Finally, the reproduction of Sinornithosaurus milleni again left me wondering
how anyone could conclude that the linear scratched traces surrounding the bones
were feathers..." Full text: Chinese feathered dinosaurs, where are
the skeptics?by Mark Robertson http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/chinesedinosaurs/featheredDinos.asp
Claws on wings