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