Or you don't understand evolution.
Current scientific thinking would suggest that birds are more closely related to dinosaurs than originally thought. It's not the same as actually being a dinosaur.
It's like saying humans are monkeys. We are not. Humans and monkeys evolved from a common ancestor
Way back in the midst of time (possibly yesterday), I said that whether birds are dinosaurs is a matter of arbitrary definition. I stick by that and you have reinforced it: because whether humans are monkeys is surely also a matter of definition.
In that case, definitions have become relatively settled, (and the political motivations of certain definitions are more obvious). In the case of dinosaurs, this thread has demonstrated that the definitions are not universally agreed, so it seems to me rather futile to pretend they are, one way or the other.
Anyone want to start a poll on whether marmalade is jam or not?
PS if anyone thinks this is just idle chit chat, think again: the assigning of things to categories is a deeply political act because of the way it then affects our perceptions.
