Coded Logic
Hahaha, well I suppose I should be happy that you've changed your position from Archeopteryx is "just a bird" all the way to Archeopteryx is "just a bird with unique features". I guess that's progress. But, if we're being honest, it's NOT just a bird with unique features is it? It's a "bird" with features that are inherently reptilian. It's a "bird" with the exact sort of features we would expect to see during a speciation event in which "birds" were much more like their dinosaur precursors. Not only that, if you'll recall, you were the one to bring up morphological and anatomical differences. I'm not sure it's really fair to cry foul (or perhaps, in this case, fowl) now that it's "too subjective" a topic since you've decided you don't like where the evidence is leading.
Yes Archaeopteryx is truly unique, and appears to exhibit a tapestry of characters, sharing some in common with the class Aves and some with the class Reptilia. What is it suited for? A life of crawling on the ground or under rocks? Or suited for a lifestyle of short flights and agile crawling in trees? The features which make it unquestionably a bird for classification purposes are uniquely and completely present and perfect. If it was transitional the feathers would be half way between scales to feathers, but it is not. Just this would disqualify it as a transitional form. A bat is not a transitional form between bird and mammal, nor is a platypus transitional between duck and mammal, even though it exhibits some features of both.
‘… we are not even authorized to consider the exceptional case of 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 mechanism of transition remains unknown. [Human Destiny (N.Y. 1947)] Evolutionist Lecomte du Noüy.
These are each independent methods of studying various aspects our DNA to determine hierarchy. For example, evolution predicts that our closest cousins are chimpanzees', followed by guerrillas and then orangutans. And when we look at our mitochondrial DNA (this is what's used in paternity and ancestry tests) we observe the exact same thing. The same is true when we look at the family lines along the x-chromosome. We find that human's closest cousins are chimpanzees followed by guerrillas and then orangutans. Next, we can do something very different. We can see what endogenous retrovirus' (ERVs) we share with other animals. According to evolution, we should expect that any ERVs we share with orangutans we'd also share with guerrillas and chimpanzees since orangutans are our most distant ape cousins. And, conversely, we'd expect that there would be some ERVs we'd share with chimpanzees and guerrillas that we don't share with orangutans. Guess what? This is exactly what we observe! Lastly, we can look at allele frequencies (or, more broadly, genotype frequencies). And the species with which humans have the lowest number of genetic variants is . . . you guessed it, chimpanzees! Wow, what a stunning surprise. Want to wager which species might be next closest? Or next closest after that? Why guerrillas and orangutans of course!
Let’s talk about chimp to man. Evolutionist say that the difference between man and chimp is 1.5 %. Does not seem much. What we need to find out is how much is much. When we hear that there is a 1 ½ % difference between man and chimp it seems not to be much. But we must take into account what 1 ½% exactly means. If there are three billion base pairs in a human 1 ½% calculates to 45 million base pairs or 15 million codons. It is estimated that it would take 10X10^21 mutations to get five condons to mutate in the right order. One and half percent does not look like much but when analyzed, it becomes overwhelming evidence against man ever evolving from a chimp.