Dino bird evolution reversal according to articles in PNAS 9 Feb 2010, and ScienceDaily 10 Feb 2010. Scientists experimenting with a model of a feathered fossil named Microraptor gui have challenged the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs. Microraptor seemed to have feathers on all four limbs and there was much speculation as to how it could fly. Some scientists suggested it flew like a biplane. Now a group of Chinese and American scientists have built a three dimensional model of the fossil and tested it to see if it could fly. They found it could glide downwards, but would not have been able to fly from the ground up. According to John Ruben, a professor of zoology at Oregon State University, who wrote a commentary on recent research into the birds from dinosaurs theory, this new research adds to other studies that “pose increasing challenge to the birds-from-dinosaurs theory”.
Ruben claims the evidence indicates that birds did not evolve from dinosaurs, but some dinosaurs may have evolved from birds. He said: “We’re finally breaking out of the conventional wisdom of the last 20 years, which insisted that birds evolved from dinosaurs and that the debate is all over and done with. This issue isn’t resolved at all. There are just too many inconsistencies with the idea that birds had dinosaur ancestors, and this newest study adds to that.” He also wrote in a commentary in PNAS: “When interpreting the paleobiology of long extinct taxa, new fossils, and reinterpretations of well-known fossils, sharply at odds with conventional wisdom never seem to cease popping up. Given the vagaries of the fossil record, current notions of near resolution of many of the most basic questions about long-extinct forms should probably be regarded with caution.”
Editorial Comment: Only die hard evolutionists have to worry about new fossils “sharply at odds with conventional wisdom” turning up. If they accepted what Genesis said, i.e. that animals and birds were created in separate kinds to multiply after their kind, they wouldn’t be worried at all. It is about time palaeontologists admitted that birds are birds and dinosaurs are dinosaurs, and stopped trying to turn one into the other.
As an amusing aside: In the original version of Ruben’s article the word “pesky” appeared before the words “new fossils” in the first sentence. The editors of PNAS claimed this was a “printer’s error” and revised the sentence to read as quoted above. (Ref. flying, locomotion, evolution)
Evidence News 24 Mar 2010