A Look at Feathered Dinosaur Baraminology Pt 3

In the previous two articles of this series, we have examined the first two iterations of first dataset used in McLain et al’s attempt to feather dinosaurs. As we have seen so far, the dataset seems to be laden with issues, likely due to including too many taxa from disparate kinds and being fragmentary due to the nature of fossils. I’m starting to come to the conclusion that this dataset (and the paper) is absolutely worthless, but more on that in a later article. For now, lets get into what McLain et al did in their third diagram.

A Look at Feathered Dinosaur Baraminology Pt 2

In part one, we looked at the first dataset used in McLain et al’s attempt to argue that dinosaurs had … More

A Look at Feathered Dinosaur Baraminology Pt 1

I’ve been poking around in the McLain et al 2018 paper for a while now, particularly after having Dr. McLain … More

Essential Nature Baraminology

The argument presented by Joubert is fairly straightforward. He argues that the original kinds possessed what he called an “essential nature”. This nature is built into the original kinds, and was the force that held the various characteristics of the kind together into a coherent whole. He further argues that, since the nature was built into the kinds from the beginning, it has not changed. Therefore, we should be able to determine kinds by looking at their essential natures.