A Partial Rebuttal to John Oller’s post “Everything Depends on True Reports of Facts”

Originally found on his blog: https://johnwollerjrontheautismepidemic.wordpress.com

Wherein, Mr Oller appears to make the astounding claim that (paraphrasing) “True things are true, but sometimes finding or relating the truth is hard.” Really cutting edge stuff. Of course, it also gets around to autism (apparently a cash cow he’s milking), and his dangerously wrongheaded anti-vaccine (anti-science) ideas that are literally causing children to die. Of course, that’s just my opinion.

My partial (very partial – that post really goes on) rebuttal is in regards to just one paragraph in the post.

Here is that paragraph, taken directly from the site (original):

For instance, was Archaeopteryx (at the right) a transitional form between reptiles and birds? Or was this specimen a fully feathered bird? Fred Hoyle complained that “there are no steps in the record from reptiles to Archaeopteryx or from Archaeopteryx to birds, as the Darwinian theory requires” (1983, p. 43). Was the lithograph shown here tampered with? A fradulent made-up fossil? It’s a moot question if Hoyle’s argument stands, and it does. Whether it is a flying bird or not, it certainly is very different from reptiles and if the feathers were faked, as some have claimed in recent years, then it was not much of a bird either. No matter, there are no transitions leading to it or from it in either direction. Case closed.

Rebuttal

No matter, there are no transitions leading to it or from it in either direction. Case closed.

This is an easy one!

Ichthyornis and Hesperornis are marine toothed birds from the Cretaceaous that are intermediary between Archeopteryx and modern birds.

Omnivoropteryx sinousaorum is another more primitive bird than either of the two marine species (Early Cretaceous) but more advanced than archeopteryx.

Let’s list a few more transitional fossils – just between reptiles and birds. Don’t get me started on holostean-teleost intermediates!:

Sinosauropteryx prima
Ornithomimosaurs
Therizinosaurs
Oviraptorosaurs
Deinonychosaurs
Protarchaeopteryx
Alvarezsaurids
Yixianosaurus
Avimimus
Shenzhouraptor
Rahonavis
Yandangornis
Jixiangornis
Sapeornis
Omnivoropteryx
Confuciusornis
Changchengornis
Sinornis
Gobipteryx
Protopteryx

I’m tired of doing your homework for you, so I’ll just leave it at these 20-some examples.

You should consider talking with some academics who work in the field. While LaFayette may have no Evolutionary Biologists in it’s employ, I am led to understand there are a few at SELU. Maybe you could make a day of it?

Love,
Will