The Archaeopteryx Transition Myth

Because of evolutionary presuppositions, the discovery of the first Archaeopteryx lithographica fossil shortly after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, it caused quite a stir. The scientific community was beginning to take Darwin seriously, and here was alleged evidence for the first bird.

Over the years, other Archaeopteryx fossils were discovered. Darwin's disciples were pushing the idea that dinosaurs evolved into birds, so Archie was claimed to be a transitional form. This has been debunked, but the transitional form concept is zombified and keeps coming back.

Archaeopteryx lithographica, WikiComm, National Geographic Society / James L. Amos (PD)

There are no half measures involved. The feathers were determined to be the kind used in flight, it had a wishbone (muscles attach there) so that involved flight as well, and other features of critters that exist today. In fact, it could be likened to the way a modern pheasant flies. No transitional form here, Horace. It was created to be a bird, and no evolutionary storytelling will change that fact.

In 1860, one year after the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, a wonderfully preserved fossil feather was discovered in the Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone in Germany. A year later, the first of 14 Archaeopteryx skeletons was found there. Named by paleontologist Hermann von Meyer, Archaeopteryx means “ancient wing,” a name implying it was a bird. Because all of the specimens were found in layers well below any other bird fossil, Archaeopteryx was raised to the evolutionary icon status of first bird.

To read the rest, fly on over to "Archaeopteryx, Myth of a Transitional Fossil."