EvC Forum: Insect diversity falsifies the worldwide flood.

We're way off topic with this - we're meant to be talking about insects not ancient reptiles, but I hope the admins will let it slide

I can't take the time to reply to this properly (it's just gone three in the morning over here and I need to be in bed) but I just wanted to thank you for posting that randman.

Researching those claims gave me one of the best laughs I've had in ages (I know, I need to get out more

I just can't resist pointing this out to you. This claim is pants-wettingly funny:

One of the most fascinating sightings occurred in 1856 when a railway tunnel was being dug between St.-Dizier and Nancy, France. The Illustrated London News on February 9, 1856, reports that when a large limestone boulder was split open, a creature with a wingspan of 10’ 7” spilled out, flapped its wings, then died, leaving a precise mold of its body in the stone.

Ok, let's just get the first bit out of the way - irrespective of whether it is a pterosaur, bat, bird or something else do you take any story seriously that involves a creature being trapped alive inside a sandstone boulder!? It's clearly nonsense from the outset.

But it gets side-splittingly better thanks to our friends at Answers In Genesis who very kindly give us a more detailed account:

It is possible too that some of those huge flying reptiles, the pterosaurs, also survived Noah’s Flood and lived into recent times. The Illustrated London News of February 9, 1856 (p. 166) reported that workmen digging a railway tunnel in France last century disturbed a huge winged creature at Culmont, in Haute Marne, while blasting rock for the tunnel.

The creature was described as livid black, with a long neck and sharp teeth. It looked like a bat, and its skin was thick and oily. It died soon after. Its wingspan was measured at 3.22 metres (10 feet 7 inches). A naturalist ”immediately recognised it as belonging to the genus Pterodactylus anas’, and it matched the remains of known pterodactyl fossils.

At least they had the good sense to drop the 'trapped in a boulder' bit

There are two problems with this story though.

First Pterodactylus (TER-o-DACK-ti-lus) was a pterosaur, with a wingspan of about 50-75 cm (20-30 inches) - just a tad short of 3.22 meters wouldn't you say?

Secondly there is no such species as Pterodactylus anas. Fortunately Talk Origins offers an explanation of what's going on:

Response:

The story is true to the extent that the discovery of a pterodactyl was reported in the 1856 newspaper.

At the time, there was a great Franco-Prussian rivalry, and the Solnhofen Limestone from Bavaria (from which Archaeopteryx would later be discovered) was producing many fabulous fossils which were loudly trumpeted by German paleontologists. When a tunnel was being built in France through limestone the same age as the Solnhofen Limestone, French "gentlemen geologists" took the opportunity to trumpet a story of their own. In the original report, the pterodactyl crumbled to dust, conveniently leaving no evidence.

The newspaper account identified the pterodactyl as Pterodactylus anas. Pterodactylus is a genus of robin-sized pterosaurs, none with a wingspan even approaching ten feet. "Anas" is Latin for "duck," which is "canard" in French, which is an English word for a hoax.
The story is ridiculous on its face and really deserves no more response than ridicule. When did creationists decide that gullibility is a virtue?

Too funny for words.

If the admins haven't shut us down I'll get to the rest tomorrow.

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