In July of 2015
Paleontologists claimed to have uncovered a transitional dinosaur fossil
with fully formed feathers which they named Zhenyaunlong Suni.
The near complete fossil skeleton was discovered in Laoning, a
province located in China which has been known for numerous alleged dino-bird
fossil discoveries, most of which to date are either too incomplete to
determine as to what type of creature they belonged to or with filament
impressions that skeptics have said could just as easily be some kind of
scales. Only three dinosaur fossils have actually been found that appear
to have fully formed feathers, but they all could just as easily be classified
as birds in their own rite.
The latest find is
depicted by artists as a dromaeosaurid with feathers.
The nearly complete
fossil find itself also somewhat resembles a dromeosaurid; the impressions
found around its forearms no doubt resemble that of wings that appeared to have
been perfectly capable of flight. No doubt that this has been hailed
by evolutionists as proof that dinosaurs evolved into bird, but a number
of things need to be considered before jumping to this conclusion.
Its forearms are
not the typical dromaeosaurid forearms. Dromaeosaurid forearms are much
longer, but the forearms of this specimen are short. The Skull appears in
shape to resemble of a dromeosaurid skull, but it is so heavily crushed that
only the lower jaw and lower half of the upper skull can be made out; most of
the skeleton for that matter, is also crushed, as would be expected in the
event of a rapid burial.
Regardless of the artist
impressions of the creature which tend to portray it as having the large
sickle claw possessed by Dromaeosaurid species, upon examination of the
fossil images, [1]
Dromaeosaurids' sickle claws are
located on either the right or left side of their feet depending upon the
species and are much larger than the other toe claws making sickle claws the
most distinguishing features possessed of the Dromaeosaurids.
There is nothing about
the so-called sickle claw that seems to stand out in Zhenyaunlong in the way
the sickle-claws of Dromaeosaurids normally would. It is possible,
however, that its middle toes might have been much longer than
the rest of the toes. As to what purpose they might have served is
unclear. Evolutionists would have us believe that the creature is a
transitional form between a dromaeosaurid and a bird, but the fossil evidence
appears to indicate that this may not necessarily be the case.
The animal was also
discovered in layers dated older than that of other dromaeosaurid species which
makes its so-called evolution inconsistent with the established
evolutionary ladder [2]
since most dromaeosaurids discovered, before Zhenyaunlong
was unearthed, were given much younger dates and show no evidence of having possessed
feathers contrary to what the evolutionists may insist.
Several anatomical
differences between Zhenyuanlong Suni and other supposedly similar fossil finds
were also pointed out in a scientific report posted on Nature.com. [3]
Evolutionists, as
constantly pointed out by creationists, still face the challenge of explaining
how simple scales could ever evolve into something as complex as a feather
since there still remains a significant gap in the fossil record.
Specimens are found with either fully formed feathers-including wings with full
flight capability or with no feathers at all.
At best,
Zhenyuanlong was just another strange looking bird. Even the
paleontologists who discovered and examined the fossils admitted that the
creature would not have appeared much different than any bird, [1] even doubting that the animal might have been able to fly.
End notes:
1. Reuters Media,
"'Fluffy feathered poodle from hell' fossil unearthed in China,"
Grand Forks Herald, July
16, 2015
2. Ibid
3. Juchang Lu and
Stephen Brusatte, "A large, short armed, winged dromeaosaurid (Dinosauria:
Theropada) from the Early Cretaceous of China and its implications for feather
evolution,"
Nature; Scientific
Reports 5, Article number: 11775 (2015)
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