Do Bird Embryos Show Evidence of Evolving from Dinosaurs? | The Institute for Creation Research

Do Bird Embryos Show Evidence of Evolving from Dinosaurs?
The majority of zoologists and vertebrate paleontologists believe that birds are actually flying dinosaurs. This even includes the world’s smallest bird, the bee hummingbird of Cuba.

Some scientists recently reported that they could allegedly see bird embryos passing through a dinosaur stage, which they interpreted as evidence of evolution.

All baby birds have a moment prior to hatching when their hip bone is a tiny replica of a dinosaur's pelvis. That's one of the findings in a new, Yale-led study in the journal Nature that explores the evolutionary underpinnings of the avian hip bone. It is also a modern-day nod to the dramatic transformation that led from dinosaurs to birds over tens of millions of years.1

But such a strange transformation is in the eye of the beholder. Visual interpretation can be subjective—based on an individual’s worldview. Evolutionary researchers are convinced that birds are dinosaurs. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that they are also convinced that bird embryos progress through a stage of dinosaur hip development.

If this progression sounds familiar to some, it’s because it harkens back to a failed theory that was used by evolutionists for decades called the biogenetic law or embryological parallelism. German zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) popularized this idea of a vertebrate embryo going through supposed evolutionary stages with the infamous phrase “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny." In other words: The development of an individual repeats its evolutionary descent. For example, evolutionists state that folds in the neck (pharyngeal pouches) of the human embryo correspond to the gills in our fishlike ancestors! However, according to two developmental biologists,

The first pair of pharyngeal pouches become the auditory cavities of the middle ear and the associated eustachian tubes. The second pair of pouches gives rise to the walls of the tonsils. The thymus is derived from the third pair of pharyngeal pouches….2

Haeckel’s idea of recapitulation has not survived.3 More recently, five evolutionists gave their evaluation of the biogenetic law.

Haeckel based his biogenetic law on the flawed premise that evolutionary change occurs primarily by successively adding new features onto the end of an unaltered ancestral ontogeny while condensing the ancestral ontogeny into earlier developmental stages. This notion was based on Lamarck’s concept of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.4

"It was unexpected to find these initial stages of bird development look so much like the hips of an early dinosaur,"1 said Christopher Griffin, a postdoctoral associate and lead author of the study. But perhaps their interpretation is wrong. It would be interesting to hear what evolutionists who doubt dinosaur-bird evolution think of this study.

The University of California Museum of Paleontology stated, “Embryos do reflect the course of evolution, but that course is far more intricate and quirky than Haeckel claimed. Different parts of the same embryo can even evolve in different directions.”5 If this is true, then another layer of doubt can be added to the idea that all bird embryos transition through an alleged dinosaur stage.

God created birds as birds on Day 5 and dinosaurs as dinosaurs on Day 6 of the creation week about six thousand years ago.

References
1. Shelton, J. The developing bird pelvis passes through ancestral dinosaurian conditions. PhysOrg. Posted on phys.org. August 5, 2022, accessed September 6, 2022.
2. Barresi, M. and S. Gilbert. 2020. Developmental Biology, 12th ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc., 609.
3. Lovtrup, S. 1978. On von Baerian and Haeckelian recapitulation. Systematic Zoology. 27:348-52.
4. Hickman, et al. 2020. Integrated Principles of Zoology. McGraw Hill, 116.
5. Early Evolution and Development: Ernst Haeckel. Evolution 101, University of California Museum of Paleontology. Understanding Evolution. Posted on Berkeley.edu December 22, 2012, accessed September 6, 2022.

Dr. Sherwin is Research Scientist at the Institute for Creation Research. He earned an M.A. in invertebrate zoology from the University of Northern Colorado and received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Pensacola Christian College.
The Latest
NEWS
Did Teeth First Evolve as Sensory Tissue?
One of the mysteries of evolution (there are so many) is the origin of teeth. The past few years have witnessed a remarkable flurry of research...

NEWS
''The Flood of Death'': A Mass Dino Grave in Canada
Paleontologists in Alberta, Canada, have recently unearthed “a mass grave on a monumental scale.”1 The BBC story speaks of Thousands...

CREATION PODCAST
The 100th Episode of The Creation Podcast! | Let's Talk About...
What role do in-person events play for a creation science ministry? How can you host an event through ICR? Are these events still important...

NEWS
Bone, Skin, Claw Lasted…150 Million Years?
Experts and educators have long assumed Archaeopteryx represents a transition from theropod dinosaurs to modern birds. All of this speculation depends...

NEWS
How Did Earth Get Its Water?
Earth’s oceans contain 321 million cubic miles (1.335 billion cubic kilometers) of water. The moon causes ebb and flow of tides twice in a 24-hour...

NEWS
New Fossil Discovery Upends Animal Evolution...Again
Reptiles belong to a group of animals called amniotes that also include birds and mammals. A new Australian fossil discovery of a clawed amniote demonstrates...

NEWS
100% Cicada Fossil
Cicadas are an unusual-looking insect belonging to the order Hemiptera (the true bugs, including bed bugs and aphids). If you live in the eastern United...

CREATION PODCAST
Earth’s Origins: Science, Theology, and a New Geology Textbook...
Since the late eighteenth century, most scientists have argued for a uniformitarian view of Earth’s history. They claim the world...

NEWS
June 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from...

CREATION.LIVE PODCAST
Getting the Gospel into People's Hands | Creation.Live Podcast:...
Can God use an atheist airline pilot to reach other nations with the truth of the Gospel? The answer, obviously, is yes.   Host...