Walking with Feathers

Ken Ham posted a blog about the movie, Walking with Dinosaurs in which he quoted from an upcoming review of the movie soon to be posted on Answers in Genesis.  

The film is set in what evolutionists call the Late Cretaceous period—and the influence of evolutionary ideas is evident in the way the dinosaurs are portrayed. The Troodon, Hesperonychus, and Chirostenotes are all feathered dinosaurs that appear in the film. On many occasions Answers in Genesis has responded to the claims that dinosaurs had feathers. One of the more recent responses can be found on our website. But there’s no evidence that dinosaurs had feathers. Such claims are just the evolutionists’ way of making the evolutionary story seem true. They so want kids to believe in evolution, this claim of dinosaurs having feathers is made very often in our day—through movies, museums, books, newspaper articles, documentaries, etc.

I saw the movie today and could not help but think that there should be evidence that any member of the ceratopsian "kind" existed with the crow "kind", elephant "kind", bear "kind"... Just look at all the types of mammalian and avian "kinds" that were supposed to be coexisting and herding with ceratopsians. The evidence for a cretaceous crow "kind" is not there.

Two members of the family Troodontidae have been found with feathers. In fact, I've found a couple of articles on AiG claiming that Anchiornis huxleyi was actually a bird. If "kinds" are generally families, then why can't other members of the Troodon "kind" have feathers or simply be considered avian "kinds" created on Day 5?

Likewise other members of the Dromaeosauridae family have been proclaimed "birds" by AiG and the evidence seems to suggest that Velociraptor might have had feathers. Why can't other members of the Dromaesauridae family/"kind" like Hesperonychus have feathers?

At least two species of the clade Oviraptorosauria are considered "flightless birds" by AiG. Why would it be so great a leap for Chirostenotes to have feathers? Typing this out, it amazes me how many members of different dinosaur clades are considered birds by AiG.

Demon Duck of Doom

Australian scientists have uncovered evidence that a giant duck-like creature which lived more than 12 million years ago may have included wombats and other large animals on its dinner menu.

Dr Steve Wroe from the Australian Museum has been studying a recently discovered, nearly complete skull of Bullockornis planei, which suggests the 2.5 metre high giant bird had quite a different diet than first thought.

These huge birds belonged to a group called the dromornithids and were unique to Australia as far as palaoentologists know. Towering above most other living creatures of the time, they were once some of the most conspicuous members of the Australian fauna. They lived until at least as recently as 50,000 years ago and some almost certainly overlapped with the first humans.

"Previously we only knew this group, called the Thunderbirds, from bones such as the legs, but not from the skull material," Dr Wroe said.

It was thought the creature, which would have weighed up to 300kg, was a herbivore and used its giant beak to tear off branches and crack open nuts.

However the complete skull found in the Northern Territory at Bullock Creek two years ago suggests it ate flesh.

Dr Wroe said the head and jaws showed evidence of very large muscles, and the head is very large compared to the body. "Birds need a head big enough to swallow food whole, because they can't chew it up. It has such a large head and beak that I would have thought that unless it was eating meat - or maybe coconuts - you'd be looking at a serious over-design problem.

"My hunch is that it ate plant material, but also significant amounts of meat - it was formidable enough that it could have eaten whatever it wanted.

"It was probably omnivorous, surviving on a mixed diet of giant wombats and the different species of kangaroos and possums that were about at the time as well as fruit and nuts," he said.

The creature probably died out as a result of being outcompeted by another animals, or the climate and habitat changing fundamentally. [1]

Terror Bird Primer

Intro to Terror Birds

Raven, the claw-handed bird, last of the phorusrhacids