Archaeopteryx Takes You To School
There is a lot of creationist confusion about transitional forms. And by “confusion” I mean lies invented by the people who make their living selling books debunking evolution.
The most famous example of a transitional form is, of course, Archaeopteryx. Let’s check in with Answers in Genesis to see what they have to say about Archaeopteryx:
“It seems to have been suited to a lifestyle of short flights and agile crawling in trees, and those features which make it unquestionably a bird for classification purposes are uniquely and completely present and perfect.”
Right…I think they’ve answered their own question with the caveat “for classification purposes.” Would you say that a pug is a dog “for classification purposes”? Of course not. A pug is unambiguously a dog. The only reason to add that tagline is that, well, you gotta put it somewhere, and birds is as good a place as any.
The truth is that Archaeopteryx is not a bird in the way that a pigeon or a British girl is a bird. In fact, if you’re looking at just its skeleton sans feathers, you’d be justified in thinking you were looking at a dinosaur. To illustrate this, I have yet another quiz that no one will respond to!
One of the animals below is Archaeopteryx. The other is a small dinosaur called Compsognathus. Without using Google, please try to tell me which is a dinosaur and which is a bird.
The other quiz that no one responded is here.
Stumble it!
August 15th, 2008 at 9:12 am
I’d say the bottom one, because the tail looks shorter, but they both look very similar.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Great post, Jason!
August 15th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Great comment, nonmagic!
August 15th, 2008 at 11:33 am
A++++++ NO COMPLAINTS! WILL READ THIS BLOG AGAIN!
August 15th, 2008 at 11:35 am
j/k’ing… the bottom one is a dinosaur. The top picture is simply a common, non-interesting bird! Plus, if you look close at the top pic you can see tiny feathers here and there.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Thanks for playing. One of you is wrong.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I decided that Archaeopteryx was the one on the bottom. This is based on the length of the fore-limbs, size of the eye rings in proportion to the skull, and lack of spines on the tail (which I’m assuming are for support and rigidity in the top animal).
Then I checked GIS and found out which one it really is.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Geographic Information Systems?
August 15th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
google image search
August 15th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I’d definitely say it was the bottom one. Like it was pointed out, the tail is short and doesn’t look like it would carry much muscle, like the “ribbed” tail of the top one. The arm bones are longer and look lighter, more built for wings and climbing and catching but not really for grasping. I say this not looking anything up and from my very weak knowledge of paleontology.
August 16th, 2008 at 12:41 am
I like birds!
August 16th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Yup, it is the bottom one. Congratulations to the people who got it right, except Other Jason, who CHEATED!
August 18th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Hey now, I didn’t use google until after I had decided which was which. I didn’t tell either. How is that cheating?
August 18th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Somehow, I guess, or maybe not.