Claim CC214.1.1:

Archaeopteryx was fully bird. It had fully formed wings and feathers.

Source:

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. 1985. Life--How Did It Get Here? Brooklyn, NY, pp. 79-80.
Morris, Henry M. 1985. Scientific Creationism. Green Forest, AR: Master Books, p. 85.

Response:

  1. Archaeopteryx is defined to be a bird (technically, an avialan). However, it had many more dinosaurian traits than bird traits. Its main bird traits are
    • long external nostrils.
    • quadrate and quadratojugal (two jaw bones) not sutured together.
    • palatine bones that have three extensions.
    • all teeth lacking serrations.
    • large lateral furrows in top rear body of the vertebrae.

    Other birdlike traits of Archaeopteryx are found also on several non-avian dinosaurs. These traits include feathers, a furcula (wishbone) fused at the midline, and a pubis elongate and directed backward. The birdlike hallux (toe) attributed to Archaeopteryx is not found on a recent better preserved specimen (Mayr et al. 2005; see also Middleton 2002).

    Dinosaurian traits include the following:
    • no bill
    • teeth on premaxilla and maxilla bones
    • nasal opening far forward, separated from the eye by a large preorbital fenestra (hole)
    • neck attached to skull from the rear
    • center of cervical vertebrae that have simple concave articular facets
    • long bony tail; no pygostyle
    • ribs slender, without joints or uncinate processes, and not articulated with the sternum
    • sacrum that occupies six vertebrae
    • small thoracic girdle
    • metacarpals free (except third metacarpal), wrist hand joint flexible
    • claws on three unfused digits
    • pelvic girdle and femur joint shaped like those of archosaurs in many details
    • bones of pelvis unfused
    and over 100 other differences from birds (Chiappe 2002; Norell and Clarke 2001).

    In addition, Archaeopteryx was intermediate between dinosaurs and modern birds in the shape of the coracoid and humerus bones and the brain (Elzanowski 2002; Nedin 1999).

Links:

Nedin, Chris. 1999. All about Archaeopteryx. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/archaeopteryx/info.html

References:

  1. Chiappe, L. M. 2002. Basal bird phylogeny. In: Chiappe and Witmer, pp. 448-472.
  2. Chiappe, L. M. and L. M. Witmer (eds.). 2002. Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  3. Elzanowski, A. 2002. Archaeopterygidae (Upper Jurassic of Germany). In: Chiappe and Witmer, pp. 129-159.
  4. Mayr, Gerald, Burkhard Pohl, and D. Stefan Peters. 2005. A well-preserved Archaeopteryx specimen with theropod features. Science 310: 1483-1486.
  5. Middleton, K. M. 2002. Evolution of the perching foot in theropods. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22: 88A.
  6. Nedin, Chris. 1999. (see above)
  7. Norell, M. A. and J. A. Clarke. 2001. Fossil that fills a critical gap in avian evolution. Nature 409: 181-184.
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created 2003-5-10, modified 2005-4-18