THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



towards the point of common saurian or stegocephal- 

 ian divergence, but there is no evidence whatever that 

 the pterosaurs developed into true birds. The two are 

 types of analogous and parallel evolution and not of 

 successive relationship. The earliest known bird, Ar- 

 chaeopteryx-macrura [two nearly perfect skeletons 

 have been found] shows an advanced state of evolu- 

 tion, and at the same time clear traces of reptilian an- 

 cestry. ... Its head and brain were bird-like, its an- 

 terior limbs adapted to flying in bird-like fashion, not 

 in pterosaurian fashion, its posterior limbs modified 

 for bird-like walking, and most distinctive of all, it 

 was clothed with feathers.""" We might pass over all 

 these points, but the appearance of feathers as an ap- 

 paratus for flying is as nearly impossible a fact to ex- 

 plain by evolution as can be imagined. By no known 

 theory can a feather be accounted for; unless a scale 

 or a dermal plate can change to a feather in a single 

 jump there is no reason or advantage for the change 

 during the intermediate stages, and a single jump 

 savours too strongly of special design and creation. 

 In addition, the complicated apparatus of bones, 

 muscles, and nerves, for flying must have developed 

 during the time the scales or dermal plates were 

 changing to feathers and while there was no possibil- 

 ity of flight or other use for this complex modifica- 

 tion. The most ardent believer in Creation by Design 

 never exceeded this submission of the reason of the 



20 Chamberlain and Salisbury, vol. Ill, p. 102. 



C 1563 



