One cannot talk about dinosaur and bird lineage without mentioning Archaeopteryx. Most paleontologists agree that Archaeopteryx was the first bird. Archaeopteryx thus represents what paleontologists would call a "transitional form" between two major groups of animals, the reptiles (dinosaur

Two opponents of the "birds are dinosaurs theory" are Alan Feduccia of the University of North Carolina and Larry Martin of the University of Kansas. They believe that birds evolved from some unknown reptile from a time before dinosaurs came to be. One point they make is that flight must have begun from tree climbing or an arboreal ancestor but that all the proposed dinosaurian ancestors were ground dwellers or cursorial. On the other side, supporters for the "birds are dinosaurs theory" feel there is an unknown dinosaur bird that was arboreal, or simply that birds evolved flight from the ground by chasing after insects.

In recent years other fossil finds have stirred the argument even more. One of these is the fossil named Sinosauroptyrex found in China. It appears to be an important link between birds and dinosaurs. Sinosauropteryx appears to be a feathered dinosaur having a mane of feathers along its neck, back, and tail-a feature until then seen only in birds. Sinosauroptyrex appears before Archaeopteryx and gives a substantial link between the theropods and birds. One opponent of t

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Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)