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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2004
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Claim CC214.2:

A team from Creation Expeditions found a fossil of an Edmontosaurus hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) species which they called Ezekiel. The fossil included a skin impression which showed it had no feathers as expected by evolutionists, thus disproving that hadrosaurs were bird-reptile transitional forms. Furthermore, it was buried in strata containing garfish and turtles, which evolutionists would not expect, supporting the idea that Ezekiel was a victim of the Flood.

Source:

Vision Forum, Inc., 2003. Creation expeditions team discovers giant duck-billed dinosaur: Home-school paleontologists strike pay-dirt again (press release, 22 July). http://bhcsa.org/DinoStory.asp

Response:

  1. No scientists believes the hadrosaurs gave rise to the birds. Dinosaurs are divided into the Saurischia and the Ornithischia. Hadrosaurs are members of Ornithischia. Scientists who suggest that birds are descended from dinosaurs propose that birds are descended from small theropod dinosaurs, members of Saurischia [Tudge 2000]. Any competent paleontologist should know this.

  2. Hadrosaur skin impression have been known to science for decades [Alaska Museum 1998]. It is no surprise that they did not have feathers.

  3. The Vision Forum press release (see the source above) refers to "The beautifully-preserved skull, with its magnificent crest intact. . .". Edmontosaurus, as with other members of the Hadrosaurinae subfamily, does not have a crest [Polly et al. 2003]. The creationist "paleontologists" have either misidentified their fossil, or they have imagined a crest where none exists.

  4. There is no reason why a hadrosaur should not share the same strata with turtles and garfish. All lived during the Cretaceous [Polly et al. 2003; Tudge 2000; White 2003]. Though terrestrial, hadrosaurs lived close to water. That Ezekiel was found in a fossil "graveyard" (to use the creationists' description) does not prove catastrophic rapid burial and thus is not evidence of the Noachian Deluge.

References:

  1. Alaska Museum of Natural History, 1998. Hadrosaur tracks and skin. http://www.alaskamuseum.org/webed/dinosaurs/tracks&skin.html
  2. Polly, P. D. et al., 2003. Introduction to the Hadrosaurs. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/ornithischia/hadrosauria.html
  3. Tudge, Colin, 2000. The Variety of Life: A Survey and a Celebration of all the Creatures that Have Ever Lived. Oxford: Oxford University Press; chpt. 17: The Reptiles.
  4. White, Toby, 2003. Palaeos Vertebrates 100.100: Neopterygii. http://www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Units/100Neopterygii/100.100.html http://www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Units/100Neopterygii/100.100.html

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created 2003-10-15