Missing Link Now Isn't | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff

Science stunner! 'Missing link' for 150 years and now it isn't? [Excerpts]

A fossil touted since the time of Charles Darwin as the "missing link" between dinosaurs and birds is likely just a dinosaur, scientists have admitted in a new report in the journal Nature. The proposal to reclassify the specimen Archaeopteryx, which has been presented since its discovery in 1861 as a key transitional link, highlights the shifting sands on which much of evolutionary theory is based, according to one expert in the field.

David Menton of Answers in Genesis has a Ph.D. in cell biology from Brown University, taught anatomy at Washington University School of Medicine, lectured in anatomy, was a consulting editor for "Stedman's Medical Dictionary" and has been profiled in "American Men and Women of Science – a Biographical Directory of Today's Leaders in Physical, Biological and Related Sciences."

Just how many papers have we had talking about this being a bird?" he asked.

A summary of the scientific paper in naturenews explains that Xing Xu, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, is suggesting Archaeopteryx is "not a bird at all."

The report says the latest discovery suggests the assumption that Archaeopteryx is "the evolutionary link between the two [birds and dinosaurs]" may need reconsideration.

Xu's conclusion after looking at the specimen was that such creatures resemble more closely dinosaurs than early birds, "and so belong in the dinosaur group Deinonychosauria rather than in the bird group, Avialae."

But what about the century-plus that Archaeopteryx was considered "the ideal 'missing link' with which to demonstrate evolution from non-avian dinosaurs to birds"?

According to the report, Xu explained, "I think Archaeopteryx's placement was the result of both history and relatively poor sampling at the dinosaur-bird transition."

Ken Ham, the founder of Answers in Genesis, said the bird-dinosaur-transition argument won't clarify much of the world's understanding.

He noted other since-discredited assumptions about evolutionary process still are being taught as fact in schools.

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