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Dinosaur Forces Rethink Of Flight's Evolution
gollum123 writes "The BBC reports that a small dinosaur with a long, slender snout and wing-like limbs is forcing a rethink on bird evolution." From the article: "The 90 million-year-old reptile, called Buitreraptor gonzalezorum, belongs to the same sickle-clawed group of dinosaurs as Velociraptor and feathered dinosaurs from China. It may provide tantalising evidence that powered flight evolved twice. One theory suggests the lineage of dinosaurs the new animal belonged to, the dromaeosaurs, originated in the Cretaceous Period (144 to 65 million years ago). But this discovery suggests their lineage can be traced further back in time, to the Jurassic (206 to 144 million years ago), experts say."
Proponents of evolution sometimes forget that it is a theory and that other explanations are possible. They also dismiss the fact that evolution may only be a part of the big picture. Why could a great designer not design evolution itself?
I don't claim that it is impossible that evolution is the actual explanation for how life came to be. However, scientists do not have all the answers yet. A widely debated example is how the eyeball evolved. Some try to explain that given a million years this is possible. Then you have the eye socket and brain plumbing that go along with sight.
One argument against evolution that I have is you don't see all these half developed fossils being dug up. For example, you'd expect to see animals with 1 arm, 2 arms, 3 arms, 10 arms, no arms, half an arm, round arms, and so on for every part of the body while evolution is fine tuning this stuff. As far as I know, this isn't the case.
I haven't seen this mentioned before but here is my theory for interest's sake: the living creatures of this earth may have been "put here" by some higher being or via the design of some higher being. Creatures are given the ability to adapt to their environment which makes perfect sense. If the creatures are expected to live on their own and make Earth their home for thousands or millions of years and the planet changes as it gets older, the ability to adapt makes good sense. In what ways can they adapt? Lots of ways, as programmed in our DNA. Parts of us which are no longer useful become dormant but in the future - let's say we all blow ourselves up and are back to the stone age - those things could come back. For example, hair all over our body. The possibilities are all preprogrammed and not just accidental.
One thing I can say with certainty is to keep an open mind. Evolutionary fanatics clinging to this one theory need to realize how history repeats itself. Our beliefs can and have been turned on their head surprisingly in the past. The world is round.
Zonk forces rethink of English language.
John Hancock