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Bianca Neale

Prof. Kretzer

ENG 1101

30 November 2018

Argument Essay

Since the creation of the earth life has been a game of adapt or die. Evolution is the

natural process of physical changes that an organism goes through to be able to better adapt in

their environment. The process of land roaming mammals into swimming whales and graceful

dolphins is just one of many evolutionary examples that we can see today. But, a rather

needlessly disputed one is the evolution of prehistoric predators into adventurous aves, from

dinosaurs to birds. This drastic jump in evolution is proved by evidence found in the fossil

records from more than 200 million years ago. Concrete evidence found in fossils like the

Archeopteryx, Deinonychus, and the skeletal structure of many dinosaurs leads paleontologist to

believe, and defend, the notion of modern day dinosaurs.

Back in the 1800’s Charles Darwin made a publication titled On the Origin of Species.

This publication was highly controversial and others made out Darwin to be a fool claiming that

his theory was false and had no proof. But two years later the confusing preserved skeleton of a

half bird half lizard was found embedded in the ancient muds of germany. The first

Archaeopteryx had been found and all of the sudden Darwin's theory didn't seem so far fetched.

The fossil showed wings, a furcula, minimized fingers, and asymmetrical flight feathers which

are all traits of modern day birds but it also sported a long boney tail, a mouth full of sharp teeth,

and grastralia which connected it to its dinosauria ancestors, specifically Theropods. When

discovered Archeopteryx was considered a buffer fossil, a missing link between bird and
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dinosaur. But with this discovery came more questions, which the opposing side attacked

relentlessly.

Dinosaurs didn't just shrink in size one day and grow feathers, that was another

evolutionary feat of its own. The small genus of Dromaeosaurid detached from its large cousins

and become small agile feathered hunters. John Ostrom, a paleontologist from Yale, made the

first discovery of a medium sized velociraptor-like skeleton. When the specimen was excavated

from the rolling hills of montana Ostrom was struck by the detail of preservation and the distinct

marks in the bones that would make up the forearms. Quill knobs are small bumps in the bones

of birds-and now dinosaurs- that allow the muscles that attach to the bone to also attach to the

feathers for more control. The forearms of this Deinonychus were an important part of the

puzzle, showing that even in the begin of the birds evolution that there were feathers present.

Even before the discovery of linking fossils like Archaeopteryx and Deinonychus Darwin

still derived his theory from somewhere, that being the similar skeletal structures of dinosaurs

discovered in his time. Their pubic bones, elongated arms, large orbits, hollow bones, 3 fingered

hands, stiff tail, curved neck, similar egg structure, expanded pneumatic sinuses, vertebrae

incorporated into hip, etc. (Dave Smith). Birds and Dinosaurs also had very similar lung

structures as displayed in a graphic made by Zina Deretsky which displays the anterior air sacs

and the posterior air sacs. This lung structure is important to highly active animals because it

constantly keeps fresh oxygen in the lungs, when the animal breathes in air is brought in the

posterior sacs which pushes the air that was already there into the main lung, then the old air in

the main lung is pushed into the anterior sac where it is then exhaled. The overwhelming

similarities scientifically plug both dinosaurs and birds into the same class, making birds
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dinosaurs. Some birds today, like the cassowary, still resemble their dinosaur ancestors with

large feet and prehistoric looking features. But some still refuse to see their similarities.

Creationism is the notion that God has created everything, radicals of the subject don't

believe in evolution. To shut down the paleontologist the creationists like to claim that God had

created birds on the fifth day and that he created dinosaurs on the sixth, therefore birds existed

before dinosaurs and couldn't evolve from them (David Menton). With all the controversy about

religion and science the two parties often disagree. But some arguments are planted in science,

like a scientist from the BAND (Birds are not Dinosaurs) movement who states that dinosaurs

didn't have similar lifestyles to dinosaurs (Darren Naish). However this theory can easily be

disproved, the prehistoric environment was highly volatile and forced many species to adapt or

die because of the changes so, the lifestyle of the easily adaptable theropods is widely unknown.

Despite the controversy from the past 200 years the concept of birds being living

dinosaurs is widely excepted. Because of overwhelming evidence form the discovery of fossils

like Archaeopteryx and Deinonychus, which helped fill holes in the evolutionary timelines, or

just analyzing any remains of the ancient lizards. Through many years of solid scientific research

and discovery today we have enough evidence to say that dinosaurs truly do walk, or fly, among

us today as birds.

Works Cited
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Ash , August. “Birds Aren't Related to Dinosaurs After All.” Creation Moments, 16 June 2009,

www.creationmoments.com/resources/blog/200906/birds-aren%E2%80%99t-

related-dinosaurs-after-all.

Balter, Michael. “Which Came First: the Dinosaur or the Bird?” Audubon, National Audubon

Society , 19 June 2015, www.audubon.org/magazine/january-february-2015/which-came-

first-dinosaur-or-bird.

“Birds: The Late Evolution of Dinosaurs.” Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 17

Mar. 2010, https://nhm.org/site/research-collections/dinosaur-

institute/dinosaurs/birds-late-evolution-dinosaurs.

Gramling, Carolyn. “Are Birds Dinosaurs? New Evidence Muddies the Picture.” EARTH

Magazine, 31 Oct. 2009, www.earthmagazine.org/article/are-birds-dinosaurs-new-

evidence-muddies-picture.

Hutchinson, John R. “The Evolution of Pelvic Osteology and Soft Tissues on the Line to Extant

Birds (Neornithes).” Freshwater Biology, Wiley/Blackwell (10.1111), 28 June 2008,

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2001.tb01313.x.

Menton, David. “Did Dinosaurs Turn into Birds?” Answers in Genesis, 17 Jan. 2008,

https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/feathers/did-dinosaurs-turn-into-birds/.

Naish, Darren. “The ‘Birds Are Not Dinosaurs’ Movement.” Scientific American Blog Network,

15 Nov. 2017, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/the-birds-are-

not-dinosaurs-movement/.
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Nikolas. “If Birds Evolved from Dinosaurs, Would That Make Them Reptiles Too?” Arizona

State University , 12 May 2017, askabiologist.asu.edu/questions/birds-dinosaurs-

reptiles.

Pickrell, John. Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds. University of New

South Wales Press, 2014.

Reporter, Daily Mail. “Why Birds Are NOT Descended from Dinosaurs.” Daily Mail Online,

Associated Newspapers, 10 June 2009, www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-

1192019/Why-birds-NOT-descended-dinosaurs.html.

Singer, Emily. “How Dinosaurs Shrank and Became Birds.” Quanta Magazine, 2 June 2015,

www.quantamagazine.org/how-birds-evolved-from-dinosaurs-20150602/.

Smith , Dave. “Are Birds Really Dinosaurs?” Basic Flight Physics, 27 Sept. 2005,

www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/avians.html.