Creation Moments – How Many Feathers?

Tongtianlong Cropped ©WikiC

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:25

 Today, we often see pictures of dinosaurs covered in feathers, which used to be represented with bare scales. Why has this change occurred? There is a preconceived notion, held by many evolutionists, that birds evolved from therapod dinosaurs, such as tyrannosaurus and the smaller raptor dinosaurs.

One such dinosaur reported in the media just a few years ago was Tongtianlong limosus. Apparently, its name means “muddy dragon on the road to heaven”. This sheep-sized dinosaur was discovered in China, and the fossil had an arched neck and raised head, as if it was trying to get free of something. Artists’ impressions of the creature show it covered with feathers, and reporters and researchers alike assume that this is correct. One scientific commentator said, “Modern birds came from dinosaurs … and it’s dinosaurs like Tongtianlong that give us a glimpse of what the ancestors of modern birds would have looked like. Fossils like these capture evolution in action.” Yet, this is simply not the case and appears to be an example of circular reasoning. The fossil shows no sign of feathers – not even the so-called dubious proto-feathers associated with other finds. It is simply the type of dinosaur that has caused it to be so classified by evolutionists, exercising more artistic license than is appropriate for serious scientific work.

In the Bible we read that God made birds on day five, and He made land animals on day six, so birds could not have evolved from dinosaurs.

Prayer: Lord God, You made everything right, in the way that You designed it, according to Your glory. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: Robinson, P. (2016), Sorry, how many feathers did you find?, < https://creation.com/sorry-how-many-feathers-did-you-find >, accessed 5/1/2019. Image: CC BY-SA 4.0 International.

Used With Permission: © 2020 Creation Moments, Inc.


“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” Adolf Hitler

“If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” [Jesus’ Words] (John 3:12 NASB)

If people do not believe the things that the Lord said about His Creation, and continue to make up false theories, how will they ever believe the truth of Christ’s offer of salvation?

Will they prepare for heaven? God’s Word is true, yet many refuse to believe it. They would rather lie, than accept the truth. So sad. Maybe a good title for this article should have been,

“How Many Lies!”

Creation Moments – How Many Feathers?

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Feathers – From Creation Moments

Genesis 1:20

“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.”

The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes feathers as “the component structure of the outer covering and flight surfaces of all modern birds”, and goes on to say: “Unique to birds, feathers apparently evolved from the scales of birds’ reptilian ancestors”.

Yet, Wikipedia does not believe feathers are unique to birds because they state in many articles that most, if not all, dinosaurs also had feathers, stating dogmatically: “Several non-avian dinosaurs had feathers on their limbs that would not have functioned for flight”. Even the Britannica article goes on to show a picture of a feathered dinosaur.

Perhaps it is easier for evolutionists to believe that dinosaurs evolved into birds if dinosaurs also had feathers. But this merely moves, rather than solves, the problem that evolutionists have in trying to establish how feathers evolved in the first place. Britannica and Wikipedia both suggest that feathers evolved from reptilian scales; yet, Wikipedia reminds us that feathers “are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates”.

The barbs on feathers have to fit exactly into the barbules – which would be a remarkable coincidence for a chance random process. Moreover, scales, being simple structures, would have to divide over generations, in many various ways, to produce feathers. The minimum estimate is for eight evolutionary steps, none of which have been found in real life. The point must be understood – it is not that feathers are too complicated to evolve, but rather that the complexity of alleged intermediate forms is impossible to replicate without design.

Prayer: Thank You for the marvelous design we see in structures such as feathers. It is as if they bear Your signature, Lord, and point towards Your creativity of design. Amen.

Ref: Encyclopaedia Britannica, accessed 6/30/2018. Image: Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Creation Moments ©2019 Used with permission


Lee’s Addition:

Feathers from Britannica

Feathers really are a work of art from The Creator!

Malayan Peacock-Pheasant (Polyplectron malacense) Feathers ©WikiC

Malayan Peacock-Pheasant (Polyplectron malacense) Feathers ©WikiC

Peacock Feather

Peacock Feather

Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) Feathers - Brevard Zoo

Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) Feathers – Brevard Zoo by Lee

“Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?” (Job 39:13 KJV)

“He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” (Psalms 91:4 KJV)

Dinosaur Tail Feather In Amber? – Creation Moments

DINOSAUR TAIL FEATHER IN AMBER?

“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” Matthew 6:26

Evolutionary scientists have recently claimed strong evidence to support the evolution of birds from dinosaurs. Palaeontologist Lida Xing was visiting a market in Myanmar, when he saw a piece of amber, containing a tiny feather, along with the more usual insects. He claimed that the feather had to belong to a dinosaur, rather than a bird, because the vertebrae present in the specimen were all separate.  This, he claimed, contrasted with the tail of archaeopteryx, the tip of whose tail has vertebrae which are fused at the terminus. Archaeopteryx is widely accepted to be a bird, although the article on Wikipedia classifies it as a feathered dinosaur. Wikipedia classifies it as a feathered dinosaur.

Tail

The feathered tail was preserved in amber from north-eastern Myanmar ©CURRENT BIOLOGY

Creation scientist Dr David Menton has shown that the feather could not have belonged to a dinosaur. Therapod dinosaurs would have been bipedal, and their long tails balance their bodies as they walk, like other bipeds, from their hips. But birds do not walk from their hips. Their femurs and knees are within their body walls. The part of the bird’s leg, often assumed to be a “wrong-facing” knee, is, in fact, equivalent to the ankle in other vertebrates. The amber feathered tail shows that it would have had insufficient weight to provide balance for a bipedal dinosaur. It is much more likely, therefore, that the feathered tail belonged to a bird.Evolutionists have an a priori commitment to finding feathered dinosaurs, as evidence of evolution. Once again, it is seen that they have jumped the gun, if not the shark, in their enthusiasm.

Prayer: 

Help us, Lord, to consider again the works of Your creation, and give You the praise and the glory. Amen.

Notes: 

Reported on the BBC, ‘Beautiful’ dinosaur tail found preserved in amber, (December 2016), retrieved 12/23/2016. Menton, D. (2016), Did a Dinosaur Get Its Feathered Tail Caught in Amber? , retrieved 12/23/2016.

©Creation Moments 2017, with permission.

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More Creation Moments Articles

FEATHERED DINOSAURS from Creation Moments

Changyuraptor yangi (aka feathered dinosaur)©WikiC

Changyuraptor yangi (aka feathered dinosaur)©WikiC

FEATHERED DINOSAURS

“As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.” Isaiah 31:5

A new species of dinosaur has been found. Scientists are calling Changyuraptor yangi the biggest feathered dinosaur ever discovered. Here at Creation Moments, however, we’re calling it a feathered bird. Dinosaur-to-bird evolution is nothing more than a flight of fancy.

Changyuraptor yangi (aka feathered dinosaur) ©Stephanie Abramowicz

Changyuraptor yangi (aka feathered dinosaur) ©Stephanie Abramowicz

Naturally, USA Today, BBC News and many other news outlets are calling it a four-winged dinosaur. Changyuraptor yangi, they say, is a new species of dinosaur that offers “clues to the origin of flight – and the transition from feathered dinosaurs to birds.” Research scientists also say that “the new fossil possesses the longest known feathers for any non-avian dinosaur.”

Non-avian? No, we’re still calling them birds, and here’s why. For one thing, dinosaurs and other reptiles have scales, which are folds in their skin. Birds, on the other hand, have feathers which grow out of follicles. Scales and feathers are completely different. No known fossils, in fact, provide evidence of a transition from scales to feathers.

Furthermore, for a dinosaur to evolve into a bird, it would need to develop hollow bones, and it would need to gain powerful flight muscles and develop a new heart with four chambers rather than three.

So, too, do we need a new heart to understand the things of God. We don’t evolve our old heart into a new one. Our new heart comes to us through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer:
Thank You, Father, for sending the Holy Spirit so we can have a close and enduring relationship with You! Amen.

Notes:
Scientists discover largest four-winged dinosaur to date“, USA Today, 7/15/14. “Four-winged dinosaur is ‘biggest ever‘”, BBC News Science & Environment, 7/16/14. “A new raptorial dinosaur with exceptionally long feathering provides insights into dromaeosaurid flight performance,” Nature Communications, 7/15/14. Illustration: Changyuraptor yangi. Courtesy of Stephanie Abramowicz, Dinosaur Institute, NHM. Used for educational purposes under U.S. fair use doctrine.

Used with permission from Creation Moments©2015


Lee’s Addition:

Actually, there are several verses in Scripture that mention a creature with four wings. Ezekiel 1:6&8: 10:21 and this verse in Daniel 7:6 says:

“After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. (Daniel 7:6 NKJV)

Flying with four wings seems to be possible.

Now for some other rebuttal  articles from Christian Creation sources:

Plus

Falling Plates