Platypus dinosaur found in Chile, according to reports in Science (AAAS) News and ScienceDaily 27 April 2015, and ABC News in Science, BBC News 28 April 2015. Scientists from UK and South America have found a strange previously unknown dinosaur in theToqui Formation in Aysén, south of Chilean Patagonia, in Jurassic rocks dated as145 million years old. The researchers found over a dozen specimens of the creature, named Chilesaurus, including four almost complete skeletons. Most of the specimens were juveniles and were one to two metres long (3-7ft), but the adult specimens indicate it grew to about three metres (11ft) in length. It walked on two hind legs, and had robust forelimbs with two blunt fingers. After a detailed statistical analysis of its overall features it has been classified as a theropod, a group of dinosaurs that includes T. rex and Velociraptor. However, unlike T. rex and other theropods, Chilesaurus had a relatively small head and a long neck. It also had leaf shaped teeth and a horn beak like a Stegosaurus, and feet that are more like sauropods. The teeth and beak indicate it was a plant eater. Its pelvis is like that of the ornithischian (‘bird-hipped’) dinosaurs, although other theropods are saurischian (‘lizard-hipped’).
Theropods are usually depicted as ferocious killers and meat eaters, but some are believed to have evolved into vegetarians later. According the ScienceDaily article, “The presence of herbivorous theropods was up until now only known in close relatives of birds, but Chilesaurus shows that a meat-free diet was acquired much earlier than thought”.
Because of this unusual mix of characteristics Chilesaurus has been described as a “platypus dinosaur”. One researcher Martín Ezcurra of the University of Birmingham explained: “Chilesaurus can be considered a ‘platypus’ dinosaur because different parts of its body resemble those of other dinosaur groups due to mosaic convergent evolution. In this process, a region or regions of an organism resemble others of unrelated species because of a similar mode of life and evolutionary pressures. Chilesaurus provides a good example of how evolution works in deep time and it is one of the most interesting cases of convergent evolution documented in the history of life”.
Editorial Comment: Comparing this dinosaur to our Aussie platypus is a good analogy, but it does not help the theory of evolution. The Australian platypus certainly is a curious mixture of features seen in many diverse creatures, yet neither the fossils nor the present day platys show any signs of having been non-platypus, and no sign of currently evolving into platypus. All evidence shows it has always been a curious yet fully functional creature that reproduces after its own kind just as Genesis indicates God created all creatures to do. The same definitely seems to apply to Chilesaurus. We cannot observe a living Chilesaurus, but there is no reason to think it is anything other than a fully functioning creature whose unusual mix of features worked well for it while it was alive. The fact that juvenile as well as adult specimens were found is also evidence it was reproducing after its kind.
Did you note that all reports remarked on the fact it had vegetarian features, as if that was really strange. This is only because the current evolutionary story is that theropods were ferocious predators and meat eaters. Therefore they claim it must have evolved in order to become a vegetarian. Yet their comment about the meat free diet being acquired earlier than previous thought is truer than the scientists believe. This is because vegetarianism was “acquired” when creatures first appeared on earth at the time of creation. The God who was there tells us that all animals were created vegetarians, but some turned to meat eating as a result of the degeneration of the animal kingdom and decline of available good vegetation in the environment after the Fall of Man and Noah’s flood. (Ref. dinosaurs, diet)
Evidence News vol. 15, No. 7
13 May 2015
Creation Research Australia