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The Missing Link between Birds and Reptiles
Archaeopteryx lithographic specimen displayed at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin.
In a short article
on the subject of Anthropological Evolution, the Northwest Creation Network
denounced the evolutionary connection between birds and dinosaurs (reptiles). The
original article, titled Archaeoraptor Liaoningensis: Fake Dinosaur-bird ancestor, references an evolution
fraud that was committed by the National
Geographic journal in November of 1999. The magazine forged a fossil with
bones from different animals and claimed it to be evidence for the ‘missing
link’ between birds and the group of dinosaurs known as theropods. They informally
named this creature as “Archaeoraptor liaoningensis”, and claimed it had the
ability to fly. This was later proven to be false, as the Northwest Creation
Network asserted. However, there have been other fossils of feathered dinosaurs
found that demonstrate the evolutionary link between birds and reptiles.
There have been fossils of the
theropod dinosaur suborder found that help us understand the junction link
between dinosaurs and birds. In Liaoning,
China, Turner et al. (2007) found fossils of the
dinosaur, Velociraptor mongoliensis. The
velociraptor had “quill knobs on the posterior forearm,” which are also found
at the base of the secondary feathers of many living birds. This finding
signified the presence of feathers in V. mongoliensis.
Additionally,
a study of three specimens from the Archaeopteryx
genus of dinosaurs found that these animals might have been the transitional
bird-like dinosaurs. Voeten et al. (2018) studied the wing bones of these organisms and found that
they exhibit the architecture and geometry required for flight. However, the
type of flight employed by these ancient reptiles was interpreted to be
different than that of the modern bird flight. The Archaeopteryx is often
considered the missing link between birds and reptiles. In fact, the name literally
means “old wing”, derived from the ancient Greek words: archaīos meaning ‘ancient’, and ptéryx
meaning wing.
Although
the Northwest Creation Network presented a story that supported their anti-evolution
claims, they were unable to refute other scientifically backed data that proved
the evolutionary connect between birds and dinosaurs.
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Posted by Priya Bikkani (1)
I think that dinosaurs have created so much fake news over the years, since they were discovered. Since we don't know that much about them and most of our knowledge has been based on deductive reasoning its pretty simple to create fake news about dinosaurs. This is why it is important to look up your facts before you go on spreading the fake news you read on the internet!
ReplyDeletePosted by: Katarzyna Mosio
As Kataryzyna said there is an abundance of fake news that often circulates around dinosaurs. Since humans weren't around for their existence and rely heavily on fossils alone it is so easy to tamper with data and in this case contort that data to provide an answer from which they were looking for. This is highly discouraging since we as scientists are expected to run experiments with an idea that can either be accepted or rejected we shouldn't be conducted these experiments to create results that we want as is the case here with combining the fossils of two different animals. Luckily, I feel and hope that a majority of scientists today wouldn't follow this pattern and I think for the most part most scientist don't conduct work like this and if they do as you've shown it is quite easy to debunk these scientists.
ReplyDelete-Maddie Powers
I think one of the main questions you have to ask here, is what is the point in spreading this fake news? What does the Northwest Creation Network have to gain from this spreading of fake news? Yes, they were able to debunk one news story but without credible evidence they were not able to completely refute other scientific papers. What is the point?
ReplyDeletePosted by Lauren Hiller
Hi Lauren. The Northwest Creation Network advocates for Creationism. They hope to spread their views by debunking scientific rationale and reasoning.
Delete- Posted by Priya Bikkani
When it comes to people making claims about the linkages between dinosaurs you have to take it with a grain of salt. It's incredibly difficult to determine homology from homoplasy when working with such old specimens. That being said I don't think this can really be used to disprove evolution as there is no basis for every other possible linkage that we have already formed between other species.
ReplyDelete-Francis Hoey
DeleteThe natural sources for people to know about extincted species is limited. Most of them are fossils and lamber. But as now, more and more fossils are found, including some astonishing fossils such as microraptor and archaeopteryx, we will gain more information about the evolutionary changes of dinosaurs. As long as people do many scientific studies based on the real fossils and other resources, the fake news cannot spread for very long time.
ReplyDeleteReplied by Muchen Liu
You are right Muchen. Additionally we also have constructed phylogenetic trees with this information to trace lineage and recent studies on DNA analysis provides more evidence of the evolutionary theory.
Delete- Posted by Priya Bikkani
As someone who would like to pursue a career in the sciences, I value the credibility of researchers and educators in my field. This includes being able to trust their findings and research, especially those being published in seemingly credible journals, such as National Geographic. Hoaxes such as this taint the credibility of other researchers work, as well as make the public less trusting of the scientific method. It deeply concerns me that if something such as this were to happen again and false information is spread, the public will no longer be trusting of honest information provided by highly-educated and credible scientists.
ReplyDeletePosted by: Hayley Fecko
Hi Hayley,
Deleteyou are absolutely right. Most of the public is untrained in their ability to spot fake science and they usually become an easy target for such hoaxes. However much of an influence National Geographic might be, it also has a legacy of racism and discrimination.
- Posted by Priya Bikkani
Incredible that the article could ignore such a vast amount of data and present a piece of fake data as representative of all research. I wonder what their motivation was behind this lie. And if it's a virtual one hoping to influence people toward belief, how hypocritically fitting that they do so through a lie. Perhaps that 's representative of how they found faith in their own lives, by replacing the truth in their lives with a false sense of happiness based on "the truth" or the lies, that they happily spread to others.
ReplyDeletePosted by "Takoda Nordoff"
Hi Takoda,
DeleteThey took one thing that supported their point and blew it up as "fake science". All while ignoring everything else that corroborates with the theory of evolution. Much like a vast group of supporters that can be found yelling "fake news". Sounds vaguely familiar?
- Posted by Priya Bikkani