Pterosaur wings are unique, according to articles in National Geographic News and Discovery News 4 Aug 2009, and ABC News in Science 5 Aug 2009.
Fossil experts have conducted a detailed study of a fossil pterosaur named Jeholopterus ningchengensis, found in Inner Mongolia in 2000. The creature was approximately 30 cm long with a 35 cm wingspan. The fossil is very well preserved and the researchers used ultra-violet light to show the details of the wing structure. They found the wings contained three layers of fibres arranged in a criss-cross pattern. Alexander Kellner, a palaeontologist at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, suggested these gave the wings strength, prevented tears and enabled the creature to adjust the wing surfaces, giving better control in flight.
The researchers also found hair-like structures that covered the pterosaur’s body, including part of the wing membrane, that had “a completely different structure that is not known in any living organism today,” according to Kellner.
The pterosaurs claws had horny coverings, indicating that in life the claws were longer than the bones indicate and were suitable for climbing trees. The fossil is dated at 140 to 130 million years and is remarkably well preserved. Kellner commented: “It must have been rapidly buried after it died, perhaps by a river or maybe inside a lake. Otherwise its soft tissue would have rotted away quickly and not been preserved.”
Editorial Comment: The unique features found in this fossil do present a problem for the evolutionists, simply because no-one has found anything that could be interpreted as a half evolved pterosaur. It is hard to imagine how a half evolved pterosaur could survive in the struggle for existence. Flying is a dangerous occupation. You get it right the first time, or you lose out permanently in the struggle for life. The more we study pterosaurs the more complex, and brilliantly designed for flying we see they are. It makes far more sense to believe that pterosaurs were created ready to fly.
Evidence News 24 March 2010
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