Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2007

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Claim CC214.1.1:

Source:

Response:

1. Archaeopteryx is defined to be a bird (technically, an avialan). However, it had many more dinosaurian traits than bird traits. Its main bird traits are
   • long external nostrils.
   • quadrate and quadratojugal (two jaw bones) not sutured together.
   • palatine bones that have three extensions.
   • all teeth lacking serrations.
   • large lateral furrows in top rear body of the vertebrae.
   
   Other birdlike traits of Archaeopteryx are found also on several non-avian dinosaurs. These traits include feathers, a furcula (wishbone) fused at the midline, and a pubis elongate and directed backward. The birdlike hallux (toe) attributed to Archaeopteryx is not found on a recent better preserved specimen (Mayr et al. 2005; see also Middleton 2002).
   
   Dinosaurian traits include the following:
   • no bill
   • teeth on premaxilla and maxilla bones
   • nasal opening far forward, separated from the eye by a large preorbital fenestra (hole)
   • neck attached to skull from the rear
   • center of cervical vertebrae that have simple concave articular facets
   • long bony tail; no pygostyle
   • ribs slender, without joints or uncinate processes, and not articulated with the sternum
   • sacrum that occupies six vertebrae
   • small thoracic girdle
   • metacarpals free (except third metacarpal), wrist hand joint flexible
   • claws on three unfused digits
   • pelvic girdle and femur joint shaped like those of archosaurs in many details
   • bones of pelvis unfused
   and over 100 other differences from birds (Chiappe 2002; Norell and Clarke 2001).
   
   In addition, Archaeopteryx was intermediate between dinosaurs and modern birds in the shape of the coracoid and humerus bones and the brain (Elzanowski 2002; Nedin 1999).

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