PROVING EVOLUTION

A “Scientist” Explains the Evolution of Birds

Los Angeles Times editorial, March 22, 1998 “Tweety, Son of Dinosaur.” “Most scientists now view the debate as settled. . . modern birds evolved from fast-running dinosaurs with feathers. . . [not] reptiles that developed feathers for gliding down from trees in which they lived.”

Once upon a time, a theropad (a small two legged dinosaur), we’ll call him Ther, was in grave danger. He was running just as fast as his two little legs could take him (which, by the way, was very fast.) Unfortunately, his hopes of outrunning a much larger T-rex who had dinner plans for Ther, were not too good. As T-rex closed in, and Ther’s little heart faced exhaustion, his thoughts turned to the sky. If only he could fly like those other animals he’d seen, he would surely survive this threat. He put out his puny little arms and ran as fast as he could to see if he could reach the critical point of lift off. But alas, it was not to be.

Over the next few million years Ther’s great grandchildren x 10356 had adapted to the threat of T-rex and were much faster runners. They had grown feathers to keep from getting cold, and their little arms had grown longer so that they could reach their food better. But so far, not one had been able to fly, even though they were forever trying to. They passed along from generation to generation the hope and desire to someday achieve flight.

From time to time, one or another Ther would enjoy a little short flight during practice, but frequently the landing would create serious injury or death. Of course, each failure was carefully genetically stored and transmitted to future little Thers.

The Thers who could fly a little bit were seen by other Thers to be more attractive, and so they found better and more mates. This resulted in more offspring with the marginal flight capability. As luck would have it, these very ones also grew more feathers and longer arms, and their arms were by far the strongest.

One day, after more 1000’s of generations, a Ther truly flew. He got up into the air, but realized pretty quickly that nobody had told him how to steer or land. Each time a Ther would finally get off the ground, a cliff or a tree would cause the crowd on the ground to groan as their expectations for flight were dashed again.

But fortune smiled on those Thers who were the best fliers. They would always produce lots of kids before their first test flight. This provided hundreds and hundreds of Thers who had the right amount of feathers, the right length and strength of arm, the right body weight, and the required ground speed for flight. After many, many, many, many, many failures, one Ther raised his feathered arm to avoid hurting his face in what appeared to be an inevitable crash with a passing mastodon. This action caused him to veer. Boy, he never forgot that move! Of course, all the ladies wanted him, (or did all the men want her?) In any case “the move” was passed along to future generations. Similar results came for landing, flapping the wings to maintain air speed, and eating enough of the right foods to provide the necessary energy for sustained flight. Most amazingly of all, information was implanted in their itty bitty brains and genetically transferred that would help them deal with wind currents, drafts, and other aeronautical aids. And this is the true story of how reptiles learned to fly.

We humans are truly blessed to have thousands of scientists digging up fossils so that we can understand how reptiles evolved into birds. Our next story will be about lizards who lived in trees, who having experimented with LSD, thought they could fly. And after eons of trial and error, the finally did.