While discussing the origin of birds, we mentioned the cursorial theory that evolutionary biologists propose. As we made clear then, the question of how reptiles grew wings involves speculation about "reptiles trying to catch insects with their front legs." According to this theory, these reptiles' forefeet slowly turned into wings over time as they hunted for insects.

There is no difference between this 320-million-year-old fossil cockroach and specimens living today.

We have already stressed that this theory is based on no scientific discoveries whatsoever. But there is another interesting side to it, which we have not yet touched on. Flies can already fly. So how did they acquire wings? And generally speaking, what is the origin of insects, of which flies are just one class?

In the classification of living things, insects make up a subphylum, Insecta, of the phylum Arthropoda. The oldest insect fossils belong to the Devonian Age (410 to 360 million years ago). In the Pennsylvanian Age which followed (325 to 286 million years ago), there emerged a great number of different insect species. For instance, cockroaches emerge all of a sudden, and with the same structure as they have today. Betty Faber, of the American Museum of Natural History, reports that fossil cockroaches from 350 million years ago are exactly the same as those of today.142

Creatures such as spiders, ticks, and millipedes are not insects, but rather belong to other subphyla of Arthropoda. Important fossil discoveries of these creatures were communicated to the 1983 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The interesting thing about these 380-million-year-old spider, tick, and centipede fossils is the fact that they are no different from specimens alive today. One of the scientists who examined the fossils remarked that, "they looked like they might have died yesterday."143

Winged insects also emerge suddenly in the fossil record, and with all the features peculiar to them. For example, a large number of dragonfly fossils from the Pennsylvanian Age have been found. And these dragonflies have exactly the same structures as their counterparts today.

This Acantherpestes major millipede, found in the state of Kansas in the United States, is some 300 million years old, and no different from millipedes today. 145-million-year-old fossil fly. This fossil, found in Liaoning in China, is the same as flies of the same species living today. Winged insects emerge all of a sudden in the fossil record, and from that moment they have possessed the same flawless structures as today. The 320-million-year fossil dragonfly above is the oldest known specimen and is no different from dragonflies living today. No "evolution" has taken place.

One interesting point here is the fact that dragonflies and flies emerge all of a sudden, together with wingless insects. This disproves the theory that wingless insects developed wings and gradually evolved into flying ones. In one of their articles in the book Biomechanics in Evolution, Robin Wootton and Charles P. Ellington have this to say on the subject:

When insect fossils first appear, in the Middle and Upper Carboniferous, they are diverse and for the most part fully winged. There are a few primitively wingless forms, but no convincing intermediates are known.144

A fossilized fly, trapped in amber 35 million years ago. This fossil, found on the Baltic coast, is again no different from those living in our own time.

One major characteristic of flies, which emerge all of a sudden in the fossil record, is their amazing flying technique. Whereas a human being is unable to open and close his arms even 10 times a second, an average fly flaps its wings 500 times in that space of time. Moreover, it moves both its wings simultaneously. The slightest dissonance in the vibration of its wings would cause the fly to lose balance, but this never happens.

In an article titled "The Mechanical Design of Fly Wings," Wootton further observes:

The better we understand the functioning of insect wings, the more subtle and beautiful their designs appear … Structures are traditionally designed to deform as little as possible; mechanisms are designed to move component parts in predictable ways. Insect wings combine both in one, using components with a wide range of elastic properties, elegantly assembled to allow appropriate deformations in response to appropriate forces and to make the best possible use of the air. They have few if any technological parallels - yet.145

Of course the sudden emergence of living things with such a perfect design as this cannot be explained by any evolutionist account. That is why Pierre-Paul Grassé says, "We are in the dark concerning the origin of insects."146 The origin of insects clearly proves the fact of creation.

142 M. Kusinitz, Science World, 4 February, 1983, p. 19.
143 San Diego Union, New York Times Press Service, 29 May, 1983; W. A. Shear, Science, vol. 224, 1984, p. 494. (emphasis added)
144 R. J. Wootton, C. P. Ellington, "Biomechanics & the Origin of Insect Flight," Biomechanics in Evolution, ed. J. M. V. Rayner & R. J. Wootton, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991, p. 99.
145 Robin J. Wootton, "The Mechanical Design of Insect Wings," Scientific American, vol. 263, November 1990, p. 120. (emphasis added)
146 Pierre-P Grassé, Evolution of Living Organisms, Academic Press, New York, 1977, p. 30. (emphasis added)