Bigotry: The Dark Danger
Archaeopteryx probably cannot tell us much about the early origins of feathers and flight in true protobirds because Archaeopteryx was, in a modern sense, a bird.” 1
We are not even authorized to consider the exceptional case of the Archaeopteryx as a true link. By link, we mean a necessary stage of transition between classes such as reptiles and birds, or between smaller groups. An animal displaying characters belonging to two different groups cannot be treated as a true link as long as the intermediary stages have not been found, and as long as the mechanisms of transition remain unknown. 2
Some biology textbooks continue to present Archaeopteryx as the classic example of missing link. Mader’s 1998 Biology calls it “a transitional link between reptiles and birds,” and William Schraer and Herbert Stolte’s 1999 Biology: The Study of Life tells students that “many scientists believe it represents an evolutionary link between reptiles and birds. 5