The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

McLain, M.A., M. Petrone, and M. Speights. 2018. Feathered dinosaurs reconsidered: New insights from baraminology and ethnotaxonomy. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism , ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. 472–515. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship. FEATHERED DINOSAURS RECONSIDERED: NEW INSIGHTS FROM BARAMINOLOGY AND ETHNOTAXONOMY MatthewA. McLain , The Master’s University, 21726 Placerita Canyon Rd., Santa Clarita, California, 91321, mmclain@masters.edu Matt Petrone , Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California 92350 Matthew Speights , Independent Scholar, Kentucky ABSTRACT Birds could not have evolved from land animal ancestors because Genesis clearly states that birds and land animals were created on separate days. As a result, young-earth creationists have consistently opposed the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs. Nevertheless, numerous fossils of dinosaurs with feathers, including some very bird-like dinosaurs, have been found in the late 20 th and early 21 st centuries. We determined to understand what these fossils mean in a creationist context through a survey of their fossil record and statistical baraminological analyses. While the survey demonstrates that feathered dinosaur fossils do, in fact, exist, the baraminological analyses suggest that there are probably at least eight different created kinds of non-avialan dinosaurs. The existence of multiple created kinds of non-avialan dinosaurs, non-avian avialans, and avians without an enormous morphological gulf between these groups, although historically unexpected in creationism, is argued through this study to be an accurate picture for their designed organization. Because of these results, creationists need to rethink the way they understand the organization of life, especially as it relates to tetrapods, in order to better represent the full spectrum of God’s created variety. KEY WORDS Dinosauria, feather, Archaeopteryx , ethnotaxonomy, baraminology, Theropoda, discontinuity, baraminic distance correlation, multidimensional scaling Copyright 2018 Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA www.creationicc.org 472 INTRODUCTION 1. Archaeopteryx and Early Thoughts on Bird Evolution Paleontologists have long noted the similarities between dinosaurs and modern birds. Archaeopteryx lithographica was discovered in 1861, just two years after the publication of Origin of the Species . Since then, it has become the centerpiece in the theory that modern birds are descended from dinosaurs. Thomas Huxley was the first to propose that Archaeopteryx was an intermediate form between dinosaurs and birds, and even linked the two groups before a more complete specimen of Archaeopteryx was described (Huxley 1868; Huxley 1870). Looking at the fossils, such as the exemplary Berlin Specimen (Fig. 1), one can easily see how this conclusion was drawn. The feathers obviously remind one of birds. However, as one observes the skeleton in detail, one begins to notice numerous features similar to theropod dinosaurs, which are not found in birds. Archaeopteryx has hands with three distinct fingers terminating in claws, unlike the fused wingtips in modern birds. While the tails of modern birds are very short and made up of a small number of fused vertebrae called a pygostyle, Archaeopteryx possesses a long, bony tail. Other features include a jaw with teeth, rather than a toothless beak; gastralia (or “belly ribs”); a hyperextendable claw on the second toe, similar to dromaeosaurids; and a greatly reduced fifth toe. In fact, bones from Archaeopteryx look strikingly similar to those from Compsognathus , a small theropod found in the same localities. In 1927, the Danish paleontologist Gerhard Heilmann wrote the influential book The Origin of Birds . Like many paleontologists at the time, Heilmann noted the similarities between Archaeopteryx Figure 1 : “Berlin Specimen” of Archaeopteryx lithographica located in Natural History Museum, Vienna. Photo by Wolfgang Sauber licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.