Coelacanth: The transitional fossil that wasn’t
(Copyright) by Jerry Bergman (Powder Springs, Georgia) For close to a century, evolutionists taught that certain traits of coelacanths (figs. 1 and 2), then known only as fossils (fig. 3), meant they were the precursors of four-limbed animals (tetrapods) that walked on land. For example, coelacanths had lobed fins (fig. 4) instead of rayed fins (fig. 5), a trait shared only with lungfish. The lobed fins had a round fleshy base, resembling short stubby legs, with other smaller fins seemingly taking the place of feet. Louis Agassiz first described the coelacanth group in 1839, and paleontologists have found dozens of fossil […]
Pterosaurs
(Copyright) by Jerry Bergman (Powder Springs, Georgia) Among the strangest animals ever createdThere are no viable examples in the fossil record of ‘preflight’ animals (before flight was perfected) leading up to the pterosaurs—or any other flying creature for that matter. Pterosaurs (‘winged lizards’) are some of the strangest animals God ever created. They are classified as reptiles but looked more like birds. They had beaks—some of the weirdest-looking in the animal kingdom. Like other reptiles, many had sharp-pointed teeth and comparatively long tails. Unlike most reptiles, however, many believe they were warm-blooded, a feature shared with birds and mammals. And the epidermal scales characteristic of […]