Difference between revisions of "Bird"

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(→‎Creationary view: feathered dinosaurs <> birds)
(Revert to creationist POV)
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[[Ostrich]]es, [[penguin]]s, and [[emu]]s are birds that don't fly, although penguins have sometimes been said to "fly" underwater. [[Robin]]s, [[sparrow]]s, [[cardinal (bird)|cardinal]]s, and [[eagle]]s are more typical flying birds.
 
[[Ostrich]]es, [[penguin]]s, and [[emu]]s are birds that don't fly, although penguins have sometimes been said to "fly" underwater. [[Robin]]s, [[sparrow]]s, [[cardinal (bird)|cardinal]]s, and [[eagle]]s are more typical flying birds.
  
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== Birds as dinosaurs ==
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Some evolutionists believe that birds have evolved from [[dinosaur]]s, although this view is disputed by both [[creationism|creationists]] and some [[evolution|evolutionists]].
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Almost all{{fact}} evolutionary biologists believe that birds are the only extant group of dinosaurs, a branch of the [[theropod]]s, which included ''[[Velociraptor]]'' and ''[[Deinonychus]]''. This view is disputed by [[creationism|creationists]], and also by a few prominent evolutionary [[biology|biologists]].
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{{clear}}
  
 
== Creationary view ==
 
== Creationary view ==
 
[[Creationism|Creationists]] contend that birds being descendants of [[dinosaur]]s is unreasonable and is not scientifically supported with any evidence.<ref>Sarfati, Jonathan, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3833/106/ Bird Evolution], chapter 4 of Refuting Evolution.</ref><ref>McIntosh, Andy, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/540/ 100 years of airplanes—but these weren’t the first flying machines!], ''Creation'' 26(1):44–48, December 2003.</ref>
 
[[Creationism|Creationists]] contend that birds being descendants of [[dinosaur]]s is unreasonable and is not scientifically supported with any evidence.<ref>Sarfati, Jonathan, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3833/106/ Bird Evolution], chapter 4 of Refuting Evolution.</ref><ref>McIntosh, Andy, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/540/ 100 years of airplanes—but these weren’t the first flying machines!], ''Creation'' 26(1):44–48, December 2003.</ref>
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They also point out that God could have created some dinosaurs with feathers, and therefore that finding feathered dinosaurs does not prove that dinosaurs evolved into birds.<ref>Matthews, Michael, [http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/2775 ''Scientific American'' admits creationists hit a sore spot] 13th March, 2003 (Creation Ministries International)</ref>
 
  
 
Creationary scientist Dr. [[Jonathan Sarfati]] wrote regarding birds being descendants of dinosaurs:  
 
Creationary scientist Dr. [[Jonathan Sarfati]] wrote regarding birds being descendants of dinosaurs:  
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{{QuoteBox|The same logic applies to the [[dinosaur]]-bird debate. It is perfectly in order for creationists to cite [[Alan Feduccia|Feduccia]]’s devastating criticism against the idea that birds evolved ‘ground up’ from running dinosaurs (the cursorial theory). But the [[dino-to-bird]] advocates counter with equally powerful arguments against Feduccia’s ‘trees-down’ (arboreal) theory. The evidence indicates that the critics are ''both'' right — birds did not evolve either from running dinos or from tree-living mini-[[crocodile]]s. In fact, birds did not evolve from non-birds at all!<ref>Sarfati, Jonathan, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/2610 15 ways to refute materialistic bigotry: A point by point response to Scientific American], Creation Ministries International</ref>}}
 
{{QuoteBox|The same logic applies to the [[dinosaur]]-bird debate. It is perfectly in order for creationists to cite [[Alan Feduccia|Feduccia]]’s devastating criticism against the idea that birds evolved ‘ground up’ from running dinosaurs (the cursorial theory). But the [[dino-to-bird]] advocates counter with equally powerful arguments against Feduccia’s ‘trees-down’ (arboreal) theory. The evidence indicates that the critics are ''both'' right — birds did not evolve either from running dinos or from tree-living mini-[[crocodile]]s. In fact, birds did not evolve from non-birds at all!<ref>Sarfati, Jonathan, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/2610 15 ways to refute materialistic bigotry: A point by point response to Scientific American], Creation Ministries International</ref>}}
  
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Evolutionary biologist [[Ernst Mayr]] in 1942 wrote:  
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Evolutionist [[Ernst Mayr]] in 1942 wrote:
 
{{QuoteBox|It must be admitted, however, that it is a considerable strain on one’s credulity to assume that finely balanced systems such as certain sense organs (the eye of vertebrates, or the bird’s feather) could be improved by random mutations.<ref>Brown, Walt, [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes10.html In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood]</ref>}}
 
{{QuoteBox|It must be admitted, however, that it is a considerable strain on one’s credulity to assume that finely balanced systems such as certain sense organs (the eye of vertebrates, or the bird’s feather) could be improved by random mutations.<ref>Brown, Walt, [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes10.html In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood]</ref>}}
  
 
[[Scientific American]] stated:
 
[[Scientific American]] stated:
 
{{QuoteBox|Of all the body coverings nature has designed, feathers are the most various and the most mysterious...The origin of feathers is a specific instance of the much more general question of the origin of evolutionary novelties--structures that have no clear antecedents in ancestral animals and no clear related structures (homologues) in contemporary relatives. Although evolutionary theory provides a robust explanation for the appearance of minor variations in the size and shape of creatures and their component parts, it does not yet give as much guidance for understanding the emergence of entirely new structures, including digits, limbs, eyes and feathers...<ref>Matthews, Michael, [http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2003/0313sciam.asp ''Scientific American'' admits creationists hit a sore spot], Answers in Genesis.</ref><ref>Prum, Richard O., and Brush, Alan H., [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000CD7F6-B16F-1E41-89E0809EC588EEDF Which Came First, the Feather or the Bird?], ''Scientific American'', March 2003.</ref>}}
 
{{QuoteBox|Of all the body coverings nature has designed, feathers are the most various and the most mysterious...The origin of feathers is a specific instance of the much more general question of the origin of evolutionary novelties--structures that have no clear antecedents in ancestral animals and no clear related structures (homologues) in contemporary relatives. Although evolutionary theory provides a robust explanation for the appearance of minor variations in the size and shape of creatures and their component parts, it does not yet give as much guidance for understanding the emergence of entirely new structures, including digits, limbs, eyes and feathers...<ref>Matthews, Michael, [http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2003/0313sciam.asp ''Scientific American'' admits creationists hit a sore spot], Answers in Genesis.</ref><ref>Prum, Richard O., and Brush, Alan H., [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000CD7F6-B16F-1E41-89E0809EC588EEDF Which Came First, the Feather or the Bird?], ''Scientific American'', March 2003.</ref>}}
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Another evolutionist critical of the dinosaur/bird connection is Storrs L. Olson, Curator of Birds at the [[National Museum of Natural History]] at the [[Smithsonian Institution]], who said: {{QuoteBox|The idea of feathered dinosaurs and the theropod origin of birds is being actively promulgated by a cadre of zealous scientists acting in concert with certain editors at Nature and National Geographic who themselves have become outspoken and highly biased proselytizers of the faith. Truth and careful scientific weighing of evidence have been among the first casualties in their program, which is now fast becoming one of the grander scientific hoaxes of our age—the paleontological equivalent of cold fusion.<ref>Olson, Storrs L., [http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/3385/ Open letter], 1st November, 1999.</ref>}}
 
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Since Olsen's open letter was published in 1999, however, numerous theropod fossils with clear evidence of feathers have been discovered<ref>Göhlich, U.B., and Chiappe, L.M. (2006). "A new carnivorous dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen archipelago." Nature, 440: 329-332</ref>.
 
  
 
Creationist also assert that the comparative anatomy analysis done by evolutionists comparing bird bones and dinosaur bones is flawed.<ref>Menton, David N., [http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/0328discovery.asp "Ostrich-osaurus" discovery?], Answers in Genesis.</ref>
 
Creationist also assert that the comparative anatomy analysis done by evolutionists comparing bird bones and dinosaur bones is flawed.<ref>Menton, David N., [http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/0328discovery.asp "Ostrich-osaurus" discovery?], Answers in Genesis.</ref>
  
 
== Evolutionary view ==
 
== Evolutionary view ==
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A very widely held hypothesis is that birds evolved from earlier theropod dinosaurs over 150 million years ago.  The most-frequently claimed candidate for a [[transitional form]] is ''[[Archaeopteryx|Archaeopteryx lithographica]]'' which is from the late [[Jurassic]] (about 150 million years ago) of [[Germany]].
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Many scientists claim that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs over 100 million years ago.  The most-frequently claimed candidate for an [[transitional form]] is ''[[Archaeopteryx|Archaeopteryx lithographica]]'' which is from the late [[Jurassic]] (about 150 million years ago) of [[Germany]].
 
There are other claimed transitional fossils <ref>http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional/part1b.html#bird</ref> also.
 
There are other claimed transitional fossils <ref>http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional/part1b.html#bird</ref> also.
  
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There are many papers in the peer-reviewed science literature, including leading journals such as ''Nature'' and ''Science'', that support the idea that birds are a sub-group of dinosaurs.  For example:
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There are many papers in the peer-reviewed science journals such as ''Nature'' and ''Science'' that support the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs.  For example:
 
{{QuoteBox|Several features, including a carinate sternum and reduced fibula, suggest that ''Mononychus olecranus'' is more closely related to modern birds than is ''Archaeopteryx lithographica''. The two skeletons are among the best preserved fossils known of a primitive bird, and emphasize the complexity of the morphological transformation from nonavialian theropods to modern birds. The occurrence of such a primitive bird in the Late Cretaceous reflects the paucity of Mesozoic bird fossils and suggests that the early radiation of avialians is only beginning to be sampled
 
{{QuoteBox|Several features, including a carinate sternum and reduced fibula, suggest that ''Mononychus olecranus'' is more closely related to modern birds than is ''Archaeopteryx lithographica''. The two skeletons are among the best preserved fossils known of a primitive bird, and emphasize the complexity of the morphological transformation from nonavialian theropods to modern birds. The occurrence of such a primitive bird in the Late Cretaceous reflects the paucity of Mesozoic bird fossils and suggests that the early radiation of avialians is only beginning to be sampled
 
<ref>''Nature'' 362, 623-626 ([[15 April]] [[1993]])</ref>}}
 
<ref>''Nature'' 362, 623-626 ([[15 April]] [[1993]])</ref>}}
  
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Since those words were written in 1993, however, many fossils of primitive birds and other theropods have been discovered, so it is no longer correct to consider the Late Mesozoic fossil evidence of this group as depauperate.
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==Evolution of flight==
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=== Taxonomy ===
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The conventional [[Linnaean taxonomy]] places birds in the Class Aves within the Subphylum [[Vertebrate|Vertebrata]]. [[Reptilia]], the conventional Class of reptiles, includes [[crocodile]]s and relatives, [[lizard]]s and [[snake]]s, [[turtle]]s, and the [[tuatara]]. However, birds and other, extinct [[dinosaur]]s should be grouped as [[archosaur]]s, along with the extant crocodiles and the extinct [[pterosaur]]s. Hence the conventional classification does not reflect the current state of evolutionary biology.
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[[Zoology|Zoologists]] continue to use Class Aves as the taxonomic group of birds but recognise that it is a sub-group of the Superorder Dinosauria, which in turn is a member of the group Archosauria, including crocodiles and pterosaurs. The higher classification of reptiles (including birds) is not fully resolved but a common view is that current evidence indicates that the archosaurs (including birds) are a sister group of the lepidosaurs, which include lizards, snakes, the tuatara, and the extinct [[mosasaur]]s and [[plesiosaur]]s.<ref>Benton, 2004. Vertebrate Paleontology</ref>
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===Evolution of flight===
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'''Cursorial Theory'''
 
'''Cursorial Theory'''

Revision as of 20:19, May 11, 2008

Bird
Grey Wagtail.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom Information
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Information
Phylum Chordata
Class Information
Class Aves
Population statistics

A Bird is a warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrate with wings and feathers. For the most part, they fly. Ostriches, penguins, and emus are birds that don't fly, although penguins have sometimes been said to "fly" underwater. Robins, sparrows, cardinals, and eagles are more typical flying birds.

Some evolutionists believe that birds have evolved from dinosaurs, although this view is disputed by both creationists and some evolutionists.

Creationary view

Creationists contend that birds being descendants of dinosaurs is unreasonable and is not scientifically supported with any evidence.[1][2]

Creationary scientist Dr. Jonathan Sarfati wrote regarding birds being descendants of dinosaurs:

The same logic applies to the dinosaur-bird debate. It is perfectly in order for creationists to cite Feduccia’s devastating criticism against the idea that birds evolved ‘ground up’ from running dinosaurs (the cursorial theory). But the dino-to-bird advocates counter with equally powerful arguments against Feduccia’s ‘trees-down’ (arboreal) theory. The evidence indicates that the critics are both right — birds did not evolve either from running dinos or from tree-living mini-crocodiles. In fact, birds did not evolve from non-birds at all![3]

Evolutionist Ernst Mayr in 1942 wrote:

It must be admitted, however, that it is a considerable strain on one’s credulity to assume that finely balanced systems such as certain sense organs (the eye of vertebrates, or the bird’s feather) could be improved by random mutations.[4]

Scientific American stated:

Of all the body coverings nature has designed, feathers are the most various and the most mysterious...The origin of feathers is a specific instance of the much more general question of the origin of evolutionary novelties--structures that have no clear antecedents in ancestral animals and no clear related structures (homologues) in contemporary relatives. Although evolutionary theory provides a robust explanation for the appearance of minor variations in the size and shape of creatures and their component parts, it does not yet give as much guidance for understanding the emergence of entirely new structures, including digits, limbs, eyes and feathers...[5][6]

Creationist also assert that the comparative anatomy analysis done by evolutionists comparing bird bones and dinosaur bones is flawed.[7]

Evolutionary view

Many scientists claim that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs over 100 million years ago. The most-frequently claimed candidate for an transitional form is Archaeopteryx lithographica which is from the late Jurassic (about 150 million years ago) of Germany. There are other claimed transitional fossils [8] also.

There are many papers in the peer-reviewed science journals such as Nature and Science that support the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs. For example:

Several features, including a carinate sternum and reduced fibula, suggest that Mononychus olecranus is more closely related to modern birds than is Archaeopteryx lithographica. The two skeletons are among the best preserved fossils known of a primitive bird, and emphasize the complexity of the morphological transformation from nonavialian theropods to modern birds. The occurrence of such a primitive bird in the Late Cretaceous reflects the paucity of Mesozoic bird fossils and suggests that the early radiation of avialians is only beginning to be sampled [9]

Evolution of flight

Cursorial Theory

Proposed in 1879 by fossil expert Samuel Williston, the Cursorial Theory suggests that the ancestors of birds were ground-dwelling theropods that developed flight through leaping and jumping. Cursorial Theory is no longer popular among scientists, who generally favor the Arboreal "trees down" theory of flight, since taking off from the ground is energetically expensive, thus it is therefore considered unlikely that flapping flight evolved from the ground up.

However, proponents of the Cursorial theory point to the basilisk lizard, which possesses the ability to run on water for a short time to escape predators, yet also has the ability to climb with great agility. The ability to run bipedally is not evident from the basilisk anatomy alone, and this illustrates the plasticity of animal behavior. It is nearly impossible to determine an animal's behavior simply by looking at its anatomy, as animals are capable of behavior beyond what their anatomy would suggest.

References

  1. ↑ Sarfati, Jonathan, Bird Evolution, chapter 4 of Refuting Evolution.
  2. ↑ McIntosh, Andy, 100 years of airplanes—but these weren’t the first flying machines!, Creation 26(1):44–48, December 2003.
  3. ↑ Sarfati, Jonathan, 15 ways to refute materialistic bigotry: A point by point response to Scientific American, Creation Ministries International
  4. ↑ Brown, Walt, In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood
  5. ↑ Matthews, Michael, Scientific American admits creationists hit a sore spot, Answers in Genesis.
  6. ↑ Prum, Richard O., and Brush, Alan H., Which Came First, the Feather or the Bird?, Scientific American, March 2003.
  7. ↑ Menton, David N., "Ostrich-osaurus" discovery?, Answers in Genesis.
  8. ↑ http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional/part1b.html#bird
  9. ↑ Nature 362, 623-626 (15 April 1993)
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