Fred Hoyle and C Wickramasinghe: Archeopteryx, a Case of Fossil Forgery?
Abstract
Paleontologist, Beverly Halstead, wrote a book review in the New Scientist shortly before his death. The authors of the book were Fred Hoyle, a scientific knight and a Fellow of the Royal Society, and C Wickramasinghe, a mathematician. Both evidently thought they had the authority to declare Archeopteryx, considered a missing link between birds and reptiles, as an unequivocal fraud. The book was couched in intemperate language and contained demonstrable falsehoods and calumnies of people unable to defend themselves. Creationist literature on Archaeopteryx refused to accept it as a transition fossil by using semantic tricks. Thus, the fossil is feathered, so it was a bird, and as a bird, it could not be an intermediate between birds and reptiles. Ergo, it was not a transition fossil. Creationists will, of course, cite this “authoritative” work as evidence that Archeopteryx is faked. Who Lies Sleeping? The Dinosaur Heritage and the Extinction of Man by Dr Michael D Magee
Abstract
Paleontologist, Beverly Halstead, wrote a book review in the New Scientist shortly before his death. The authors of the book were Fred Hoyle, a scientific knight and a Fellow of the Royal Society, and C Wickramasinghe, a mathematician. Both evidently thought they had the authority to declare Archeopteryx, considered a missing link between birds and reptiles, as an unequivocal fraud. The book was couched in intemperate language and contained demonstrable falsehoods and calumnies of people unable to defend themselves. Creationist literature on Archaeopteryx refused to accept it as a transition fossil by using semantic tricks. Thus, the fossil is feathered, so it was a bird, and as a bird, it could not be an intermediate between birds and reptiles. Ergo, it was not a transition fossil. Creationists will, of course, cite this “authoritative” work as evidence that Archeopteryx is faked. Who Lies Sleeping? The Dinosaur Heritage and the Extinction of Man by Dr Michael D Magee
Contents Updated: Thursday, 21 January 2010
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Last uploaded: 21 January, 2010.
