I'm not making a display. I'm asking genuine questions and generally getting insulted for asking them. Trying to pin down the evolutionary arguments presented is like trying to squeeze jello. Transitional fossils shown to prove evolution may not actually be transitional fossils, but are presented to show that transistions in evolution exist. Does that sound weird to anyone else?
The Tap-Dancer then declares fossil series evidence to be irrelevant. How do we know ... various things? The dates of the fossils? Whether fossil A lies exactly on the ancestral line of fossil B?
I'm serious here. For the life of me I can't figure out why actual dates seem like an afterthought to evolution. Now I find out that it's not important because things may devolve, and not evolve, so dates mean nothing. Is that about the argument?
Let me remind the lurkers that you are waving your alleged inability to get evolutionary arguments as a wave-away for post 661 by Ichneumon. Your introductory statement: "Ichneumons stunning post on transitionals is deeply flawed."
Out of all that post, you have myopically focussed upon the supposed deep flaw represented by Caudipteryx being later than Archaeopteryx, together with Feduccia's rather eccentric theories.
Your concerns on that point have been addressed directly. You don't have a valid point. But even if the anomaly was real, it wouldn't explain anything about why we have parallel evidence for reptiles becoming mammals, or land animals becoming whales, or fish eventually becoming elephants, and why molecular evidence points to the same phylogenetic relationships we get from morphology and the fossil record. The inadequacy of your mumbles in the post to which I responded needs no further comment from me.
One last point on the lameness of citing Feduccia.
Quotations and Misquotations: Why What Antievolutionists Quote is Not Valid Evidence Against EvolutionPicking and choosing authorities
In advertisements for movies, it is usually taken for granted that the studios only quote positive reviews. This kind of Madison Avenue tactic is not a legitimate means of establishing the nature of reality. One cannot just pick the expert whose opinion is convenient for the point one is trying to make while ignoring credible expert opinion to the contrary. This is especially the case when the quoted authority is in the minority among his fellow experts. There might be a very good reason why the authority's views are in the minority. If a writer argues by hand-picking only the experts convenient to him, then that writer has committed the "argument from authority" fallacy. Antievolutionists do this routinely.
- Alan Feduccia who opposes the idea that birds are descended from dinosaurs and instead argues that birds are descended from non-dinosaur archosaurs (a taxon that includes dinosaurs) is often quoted by evolution deniers. Feduccia is a qualified scientist and should not be just dismissed, but his views are in an extreme minority within the scientific community. It is simply bad reasoning for the evolution deniers to use Feduccia's writing disagreeing with conventional ideas of bird evolution while ignoring the many experts that disagree with him.
"Is Archaeopteryx a 'missing link'?"1 quotes Feduccia on Archaeopteryx:
Was Archaeopteryx a feathered dinosaur? Dr. Alan Feduccia, a world authority on birds at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an evolutionist himself, said: "Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth-bound, feathered dinosaur. But it's not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of 'paleobabble' is going to change that."
Notice the author is citing Feduccia's conclusion, and not his evidence. There is no mention that that his opinion is a minority opinion. Feduccia's peers in the field of bird evolution are "authorities" too. In short this creationist is saying that Feduccia is an authority and that he says that birds are not descended from dinosaurs, therefore birds are not descended from dinosaurs. It is a classic "argument from authority." It is also very inconsistent. Feduccia also says that evolution occurs, so if this argument is to be followed to its logical conclusion, this creationist must accept the evolution of birds from non-birds! One could also cite many more authorities that say birds are descended from theropod dinosaurs. This is why one should not pick and choose authorities. If Feduccia does turn out to be correct and his views become established within the scientific community, then the evolution deniers will probably become fond of quoting what Kevin Padian and other proponents of birds being descended from dinosaurs had to say about Feduccia's views.