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Fossil of recently discovered bird with possible wing membrane.
Courtesy of Answers in Genesis

NEW FOSSIL OF A BIRD/BAT DINOSAUR??

Good afternoon! And how are all of you today? I pray all is well for you fine people out there. Has anything new happened? I am finally home from visiting with my sister. I already miss her but I don’t miss the dreary, rainy, spring days in that part of the country. 

Speaking of something new, the Journal of Nature related an article May 8, 2019 about a fossil of a bat-like dinosaur (Ambopteryx longibrachium) discovered in China. Scientists date it according to the evolution world view at 163 million years old. The researches claim that it is a dinosaur, though it has many bird features, making such a claim questionable at the least. 

Birds have gizzards and swallow stones to help the gizzards

break down food since they have no teeth. The avian family (kind) also contains a pygostyle (the bone at the posterior end of the spinal column in birds, formed by the fusion of several caudal vertebrae which allows tail feathers an anchor point), relatively long forelimbs, and unique feet with claw arrangement. All of which the fossil of the “bat-like dinosaur” contains. “Also, it has an initial size estimate of a mere 57 grams (which was later changed to 307 grams using a different technique to make it fit with the family this fossil is attributed to; the researchers note they are unsure which size estimate is correct). These are all bird-like qualities. Indeed, one popular

Pygostyle (see arrows)

article on this research said the lead researcher thought it was a bird (birds are not supposed to have evolved 163 million years ago) when he first started examining the fossil but changed his mind when he saw the uniquely large fingers, a feature not found in any known bird.”¹

Interestingly, the researchers found soft tissue and claim that to belong to a membranous wing, but was mysteriously lost during cleaning. And the researches have stated that they only found potential traces of the membrane. Could the membrane have come from somewhere else? This begs the question, did this fossil even have the presumed bat-like wing? And of course, how did soft membrane tissue survive for 163 million years. 

So why are the evolutionary world view scientists so eager to classify this animal as a dinosaur rather than a bird? Well, evolutions believe avian flight has evolved four different times from dinosaurs. Even for evolutionists anything that has evolved separately four different times is very far fetched! This is why it’s so vital for evolutionists to classify this newly

Artists rendition of what he/she
 interpreted the fossil to look like.
Courtesy of Answers in Genesis

discovered animal as a dinosaur. To add a fifth separate evolution of birds would just be absurd even to those who hold an evolutionary world view. It is, though, by this point of view that birds evolved 150 million years ago. Thus, if this fossil gets classified as a bird, it will have happened 13 million years before avians were supposed to have been developed. 

This new find, though have the unusual feature of elongated finger bones, would by all the other evidence suggest it is a bird. Whatever this new species is, it is interesting and needs further research. It seems that there are a lot of claims being made in this journal paper without being supported by data.

The Bible tells us in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, over and over that everything He created will multiply after its own kind.

Artists rendition of what he/she
 interpreted the fossil to look like.
Courtesy of Answers in Genesis

A kind is basically equivalent to the family in the classification system. We can trust the word of God for He cannot lie. Don’t you just love it!

Until next time, God bless and take care,

Willow Dressel

PS. Please know that all the drawings of this creature are just that, an artist’s rendition of what he/she thinks it would look like. It may have looked completely different! 

References:

¹https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/types/new-species-of-bat-wing-dinosaur-uncovered/?utm_source=articlesmedia&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1-banner-cta&utm_campaign=20190511&mc_cid=eb992a9449&mc_eid=ec76e61712

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/newly-discovered-bat-dinosaur-reveals-intricacies-prehistoric-flight-180972128/