Response
An evolutionist expert on birds, Alan Feduccia, has admitted that Archaeopteryx was definitely a bird and certainly not a transitional. 2
The teeth of Archaeopteryx do not matter because many extinct birds had teeth, and many reptiles do not. 3 Like birds but unlike reptiles, its upper jaw moved as well as the lower jaw.
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Sources
Coyne, J. A. (2009). Why Evolution Is True. New York: Viking.
Sarfati, J. D., & Matthews, M. (1999). Refuting Evolution. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
Notes
- Coyne, 2009, p. 40: “Archaeopteryx is really more reptile than bird. Its skeleton is almost identical to that of some theropod dinosaurs. In fact, some biologists who didn’t look at the Archaeopteryx fossils closely enough missed the feathers, and misclassified the beast as theropods. … The reptilian features include a jaw with teeth, a long bony tail, claws, separate fingers on the wings (in modern birds these bones are fused, as you can see by inspecting a gnawed chicken wing), and a neck attached to its skull from behind (as in dinosaurs) instead of from below (as in modern birds). The birdlike traits number just two: large feathers and an opposable big toe, probably used for perching. It still isn’t clear whether this creature, though fully feathered, could fly. But its asymmetrical feathers–one side of each feather is larger than the other–suggest that it could. Asymmetrical feathers, like airplane sings, create the “airfoil” shape necessary for aerodynamic flight. But even if it could fly, Archaeopteryx is mainly dinosaurian. It is also what evolutionists call a “mosaic.” Rather than having every feature appear halfway between those of birds and reptiles, Archaeopteryx has a few bits that are very birdlike, while most bits are very reptilian.” ↩
- Sarfati, 1999, p. 58: Quoting “Alan Feduccia, a world authority on birds at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an evolutionist himself”:
“Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth-bound, feathered dinosaur. But it’s not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of ‘paleobabble’ is going to change that.” ↩
- Sarfati, 1999, p. 59 ↩