In Darwin’s Origin of Species, he writes that the number of transitional species ought to be enormous! Unfortunately for evolutionists, those missing links have been few and far between. Even the one we’ll consider here is one of the “rare fossils” that are only found “occasionally” (Mayr, 14). If evolution was as true and substantiated without doubt as evolutionists want our children to believe, the ground should be full of “missing links.”
One such link proposed is the supposedly reptile-like bird, the Archaeopteryx. Darwin published his Origin of Species in 1859. Two years later, the Archaeopteryx was found.
WHAT IS THE ARCHAEOPTERYX?
A strange bird was discovered in limestone in Solnhofen, Germany by Hermann von Meyer in the mid-19th century (1861). It has been dated to the Jurassic Period (150 mya). It is supposed to have evolved from the dinosaur. The Archaeopteryx had teeth like many reptiles and other fossilized birds.
In 1877, an even more complete skeleton was found. A total of eight specimens have been found but the second one, in 1877, continues to be the most complete skeleton. It is about the size of a pigeon.
IS IT A BIRD?
The main bird-like feature is the feathers. They are identical to modern birds. The name of the bird – archaeopteryx – means “old wing”; yet, it is the wings of the animal that are the most advanced. If we just looked at the wings, we would suppose that we simply have another species of bird. It seems that the archaeopteryx was an accomplished flier.
IS IT A REPTILE?
But, it has some eight features in common with the reptile. How could it have evolved its feathers but the other features remain the same as its reptilian ancestors? No one can answer that question (Davis & Kenyon, 106). However, an evolutionist, Francis Hitching, suggested nearly every one of the reptilian features could be found in birds (Sunderland, 74-76), modern or extinct!
One other problem with the idea that the archaeopteryx was the missing link is that bird fossils have been found further down in the geologic column than where the archaeopteryx was supposedly found. James Jensen of Brigham Young University found an unequivocal bird fossil in rocks that are 60 mya older than archaeopteryx.
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What are some of the changes that would have to occur before a reptile (dinosaur) could become a bird? This list comes from a quotation in Bird (217) by Macbeth, The Hypothesis of Divergent Ancestry (321, 326):
Development of feathers;
Reform the respiratory system;
Reform skeletal system (porous, hollow);
Reform digestive system;
Reform nervous system (esp. brain and eyeball);
Construction of bills and beaks;
Creation of nest-building instinct;
Ability to fly & home.
What all this means is that Archaeopteryx turns out not to be a missing link between the reptile and the bird. It turns out to be simply what it looks like – a unique bird. To be honest, those paleontologists who know best, have shelved the archaeopteryx as a missing link and they continue their search… Starr and Taggart, in a college biology textbook, write that the current origin of birds is “highly speculative” (584).
Don’t let evolution rob you of your faith in the Bible.
