the biggest problem for evolutionists and Archaeopteryx is that it does not predate birds, because fossils of other birds have been found in rocks of the same period
How is this a problem? Transitional features can certainly be preserved in sister taxa, as is the case for Archaeopteryx. Even Darwin talked about using sister taxa as a source for phylogenetic data:
quote:
In looking for the gradations by which an organ in any species has been perfected, we ought to look exclusively to its lineal ancestors; but this is scarcely ever possible, and we are forced in each case to look to species of the same group, that is to the collateral descendants from the same original parent-form, in order to see what gradations are possible, and for the chance of some gradations having been transmitted from the earlier stages of descent, in an unaltered or little altered condition.--Charles Darwin, Chapter 6, "Origin of Species"
Archaeopteryx is a perfect example of a collateral descendant in which the transitional features have been transmitted from the earlier stages of descent.
To use an analogy, intricate stone tools (e.g. highly specialized arrow heads) was a transition between archaic stone tools (e.g. crude stone cutter) and modern technology. You can still find tribes where the use and construction of these tools has been preserved. These tribes did not make the jump to modern technology. Does the existence of modern tribes using primitive technology negate the transition between crude tools and modern technology? Nope.
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