Evolutionary Claim: 

Over millions of years, by mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift, reptiles diversified into numerous taxonomic orders, including several orders of dinosaurs.

Reality Check:

(Unless otherwise noted, quotations below  are from the book by Henry Morris, That Their Words May Be Used Against Them, or from the book by Duane T. Gish, Evolution: The Fossils Still Say NO! Both books are available from the Institute for Creation Research. Links are to articles and papers on the World Wide Web.)

Gish, Duane T., Evolution: The Fossils Still Say NO! (El Cajon: Institute for Creation Research, 1995)

p.96
We find the same situation concerning the origin of reptiles that is found with amphibians—the abrupt appearance of each basic type with no transitional forms to provide the expected evolutionary links and to reveal the evolutionary pathways leading to each basic kind.

^{p.99
Just where transitional forms are most critically needed, as just described above, they are always absent. That will be abundantly illustrated as the origin of distinctly different types of reptiles is documented. These widely divergent groups of reptiles include the flying reptiles, the marine reptiles, the gliding reptiles, the snakes, and the turtles.}

p.100
Flying Reptiles

The differences between nonflying and flying reptiles were dramatic. In Figure 4 is shown a reconstruction of Saltoposuchus, the thecodont reptiles that Romer believed gave rise to flying reptiles, dinosaurs, and birds. The vast gulf between this creature and representatives of the two suborders of pterosaurs, shown in Figures 5 and 6, is obvious.

Figure 4. Saltoposuchus, a thecodont reptile
Saltoposuchus, a thecodont, believed by Romer and others to be the ancestor of dinosaurs, birds, and flying reptiles. From A. S. Romer, Vertebrate Paleontology, 3rd ed. (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1966), by permission of The University of Chicago Press.

Almost every structure in Rhamphorhynchus, a long-tailed pterosaur (Figure 5), was unique to this creature. Especially obvious (as in all pterosaurs) was the enormous length of the fourth finger, in contrast to the other three fingers possessed by this reptile. This fourth finger provided the major support for the wing membrane. It was certainly not a delicate structure, and if the pterosaurs evolved from the thecodonts or some other earthbound reptile, transitional forms should have been found showing a gradual lengthening of this fourth finger. Not even a hint of such a transitional form has ever been discovered, however. The "earliest" pterosaurs are found in Upper Triassic rocks, and are reported to resemble later rhamphorhyncoids very closely.

Figure 5. Rhamphorhynchus, a long-tailed pterosaur.
From Williston’s The Osteology of the Reptiles, by permission of The Harvard University Press.

The skeleton of the earliest pterosaurs was adapted to active flight as much as that found in modern birds, although their structure was very different from birds. It seems apparent that if all of the highly modified structures required for flight that are present in Rhamphorhynchus and similar flying creatures had evolved gradually during millions of years from an ordinary land reptile, a considerable number of transitional forms documenting this transition would have been found. Not one such transitional form has ever been found. Thus, Carroll states:

… all the Triassic pterosaurs were highly specialized for flight and were very similar to later rhamphorhyncoids in most features. They provide little evidence of their specific ancestry and no evidence of earlier stages in the origin of flight.^5-29

The pterodactyloid group of pterosaurs was equally unique. Pteranodon (Figure 6) was a toothless reptile with a large beak and a bony crest extending to the rear. As with all flying reptiles, the wing membrane was supported by the fourth finger. Quetzalcoatlus had a wingspan of almost 40 feet, and fossils of pterodactyls discovered in Texas were reported to have had wingspans up to 54 feet—longer than modern jet-fighter aircraft!

Concerning the pterodactyls, Carroll states:

Pterodactyloids were already numerous and diverse in the Upper Jurassic, as we can see from fossils from Solnhofen (Wellnhofer, 1970). These remains include some of the smallest pterosaurs and the ancestors of the largest flying reptiles. No forms are known that are intermediate between rhamphorhyncoids and pterodactyloids … The fossil record of pterosaurs extends for approximately 150 million years, and nearly 90 species have been reported from every continent except Antarctic.5-30

Pteranodon, a giant flying reptile with a wingspan of over 50 feet. From A. S. Romer, Vertebrate Paleontology, 3rd ed. (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1966), by permission of The University of Chicago Press.

It is obvious that if these extremely unique flying creatures, the rhamphorhyncoids and pterodactyloids, had evolved from land reptiles during a period of 150 million years, and their fossils have been discovered essentially throughout the entire world, a great number of transitional forms should have been discovered that would establish beyond doubt that these creatures had evolved from ancestral land reptiles. Precisely the opposite is the case. The rhamphorhyncoids and pterodactyloids appear fully-formed without a trace of transitional forms.

The very notion that a land reptile could have gradually been converted into a flying reptile is absurd. The incipient, part-way evolved structures, rather than conferring advantages to the intermediate stages, would have been a great disadvantage. For example, evolutionists suppose that, strange as it may seem, mutations occurred that affected only the fourth fingers a little bit at a time. Of course, other random mutations occurring concurrently, incredible as it may seem, were responsible for the gradual origin of the wing membrane, flight muscles, tendons, nerves, blood vessels, and other structures necessary to form the wings. At some stage, the developing flying reptile would have had about 25% wings. This strange creature would never survive, however. What good are 25% wings? Obviously, the creature could not fly, and he could no longer run, as he would be forced to drag those useless appendages along as, presumably, his hind limbs could still function. He could no longer catch prey nor escape predators. Good bye, Charlie! That such an experiment would have been a complete failure is testified to by the complete failure to find even a trace of an ancestor or transitional form for these totally unique flying reptiles.

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