It is clear that no true transitional fossils have ever been found in the rock record. In fact, I have yet to see any convincing evidence that such a thing as a transitional change of one kind of lifeform into another kind is scientifically possible. Yet a most common example that evolutionists provide for macroevolutionary change is that of dinosaurs transitioning into birds over a period of millions of years. Some evolutionists even state that they believe birds are dinosaurs.
The Bible tells us that God created flying things (such as birds) on Day 5 of the creation and land animals on Day 6 along with man. This is all the Bible-believing Christian needs in order to know that the dinosaur-to-bird transition never happened. Birds were first created on Day 5 and then a day later came the land animals such as the dinosaurs.
Nevertheless, a look at anatomical and morphological similarities and differences for dinosaurs and birds is very instructive to an understanding of the truth regarding this issue.
SIMILARITIES:
1. Dinosaurs and birds are vertebrates. Dinosaurs had backbones as do birds.
2. Dinosaurs and birds are air breathing animals. Dinosaurs had lungs as do birds.
3. Dinosaurs and birds laid eggs. Dinosaurs had hard-shelled eggs as do birds.
In the minds of evolutionists these similarities are sufficient to conclude that dinosaurs and birds have had a common ancestor. But, there is plenty of evidence that speaks against this presuppositionally composed idea. Evolutionists presuppose lifeform transitions and common ancestors while creationists presuppose lifeform engineering in the beginning by the Creator God of the Bible.
DIFFERENCES:
1. Dinosaurs were, by definition, land animals and there is no scientific reason to believe that any dinosaur kind could fly. Most birds can and do fly, and it is possible that in the beginning all birds could fly. This capability for flight is a monumental difference between dinosaurs and birds.
2. There is no known biological mechanism for changing a dinosaur scale into a bird feather. The extremely complex bird feather could not have morphed from the relatively simple dinosaur scale. The rock record reveals no transitional scale-to-feather fossils.
3. Even if God had chosen to design some dinosaurs with feathers, as some evolutionists would have us believe, that would not necessarily mean He would have done that it order to help dinosaurs evolve into birds. The structural and morphological changes required to naturally modify a land animal to a flying animal are unmistakably monumental. Most secular natural history museums these days are displaying dinosaur reconstructions that have feathers. This is an attempt by evolutionists to convince the public that evidence for the dinosaur-to-bird transition has been proven. I do not think the evidence really exists that any dinosaur kind had feathers, but even if some did have feathers of some type there are a number of purposes these feathers could have had besides assisting in dinosaur-to-bird evolution.
4. It is not known for sure the exact design of the dinosaur lung because so little of the lung structure has been preserved in the fossils. However, all the evidence indicates that the dinosaur lung was similar to the reptile lung or the mammal lung and not at all like the bird lung. Bird lungs are designed so that the air flows through the lung to interconnecting air sacs in the bird’s muscles and under its skin. These features and others result in a lung that is very light compared to the in-and-out designed lungs of reptiles and mammals. In fact, this light lung design is a requirement for flight. There is no known biological mechanism for a land animal lung to change to a bird lung.
5. Dinosaurs are classified into two main categories according to their hip designs. They either had what is called “lizard-hips” (aka saurischian hips), or they had “bird-hips” (aka ornithischian hips). See the figures below for the two designs.
Dinosaur Lizard-Hip Design
Dinosaur Bird-Hip Design
Those many secular paleontologists who believe that birds evolved from dinosaurs think that they evolved from the Lizard-Hipped category of dinosaurs rather than the Bird-Hipped category—just the opposite from what common sense might indicate.
A point often mentioned by creationists on this topic is the difficulty in imagining how an animal could morph an arm into a wing and still survive. If it was to happen according to the standard evolutionary concept of slow changes over long periods of time, all one can imagine is extinction as the arm evolved to be worthless for any purpose. And, what possible natural process could be imagined to complete the task quickly. That sounds like a miracle to me.
Variation within a kind of lifeform can be quite extensive, but has definite limits that would not extend to the variations required for scales to change into feathers, a reptile lung to change into a bird lung, or an arm to change into a wing. These massive variations exist in reality only in the minds of evolutionists.
In conclusion, it is clear from the book of Genesis that God did not make birds from dinosaurs. The dinosaurs did not come into existence until the day after the birds were created. So, both scientifically and biblically it can be reiterated that birds are not dinosaurs, and birds did not evolve from dinosaurs.
J.D. Mitchell
