- Archaeopteryx and Velociraptor skulls and teeth are nearly identical except for size. Velociraptor was clearly a dinosaur.
- Archaeopteryx skeletal structure is very similar to dinosaur skeletal structure according to expert Peter Wellnhofer. (See Wellnhofer, Peter, Archaeopteryx – The Icon of Evolution, Verlag Dr. Fredrich Pfeil, 2009, p.163.)
- Flying birds have short and robust humerus bones. Archaeopteryx had long, thin humerus bones.
- Flying birds have thin, V-shaped furculas. Furculas have been found in just two specimens. The furculas found with the two Archaeopteryx specimens are stout in cross-section and are U-shaped. They are the same proportional design as furculas found on Theropod dinosaurs.
- Flying birds have massive sternums. Archaeopteryx fossil specimens have no readily identifiable similar sternums. Wellnhofer writes, “no specimen of Archaeopteryx yet found exhibits an ossified breastbone.”
- Flying birds are knee-walkers. Archaeopteryx has the skeletal structure of a hip-walker just like Theropod dinosaurs.
- Generally, in flying birds (for example the pigeon) the vertebrae connect to the bottom of the skull. In Archaeopteryx the vertebrae connect at the back of the skull, just like in bipedal dinosaurs.
- Three of the ten Archaeopteryx specimens have distinct feather imprints. The imprints in the other seven specimens require various amounts of imagination to see. The Berlin specimen is the one with the least amount of disarticulation and, if there were no feather imprints, this specimen would have been identified as a dinosaur, according to Wellnhofer (p. 75).
- Barbs and barbules of flight feathers are not identifiable in any of the feather imprints. The touted Archaeopteryx “flight feathers” have only been assumed based on a single flight feather found in the Solnhofen limestone. The location of the found flight feather has not been documented as being near to any Archaeopteryx This is poor forensic evidence for flight feathers in Archaeopteryx. A creationist that presupposes that the fossils have been found in the Solnhofen limestone sediments due to the global Flood, a catastrophic event, would have no reason to accept the feather specimen as proven to be from Archaeopteryx.
- Creationist Jonathan Sarfati based his conclusion that Archaeopteryx was a bird in large part on the opinion of evolutionist bird expert Alan Feduccia, who based his conclusion primarily on measurements of the claws of Archaeopteryx. Feduccia proposed that claw design can determine bird perching, but birds perch on their feet not on their claws. Anyway, J.D. Mitchell tried to, but was not able to, replicate those measurements published by Feduccia. (See the DVD “Archaeopteryx—What Was It?” for details.)
- More recent secular bone studies on the actual bones of Archaeopteryx indicate that the bones are not like bird bones, but are more like lizard bones.
- While some evolutionists (like Feduccia) do not believe Archaeopteryx is a transitional form of dinosaur to bird, a large majority of secular paleontologists still do promote this belief.
- The Archaeopteryx specimens are considered to be priceless artifacts by their secular owners. To my knowledge no creationist has been allowed access for scientific evaluation of the London, Berlin, or Thermopolis specimens which are the ones with the best feather imprints. Authenticity doubters Hoyle and Wickramasinghe were allowed limited access to the London specimen, but they were not creationists.
- One thing is not in dispute and that is that all agree that Archaeopteryx is an extinct animal.
A careful examination of these facts and others should cause the open-minded biblical creationist to conclude that Archaeopteryx was not a flying bird, in fact maybe not any kind of a bird. It makes more sense that it was a dinosaur with feather imprints fraudulently added to a few dinosaur fossils, or possibly a mosaic like the platypus.
For more details on this topic see the book, Fossils: Description & Interpretation within a Biblical Worldview (pp. 107-122) and the DVD mentioned above that are available for sale from the author J.D. Mitchell.
J.D. Mitchell
