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Further clarification of avian evolution
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Since Olsen's open letter was published in 1999, however, numerous theropod fossils with clear evidence of feathers have been discovered<ref>Göhlich, U.B., and Chiappe, L.M. (2006). "A new carnivorous dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen archipelago." Nature, 440: 329-332</ref>, with the result that there is now little doubt about the close relationship of birds, as extant dinosaurs, to the extinct theropod dinosaurs. Birds appear to have split from other dinosaur lineages sometime before the mid-Jurassic, 155-150 million years ago.
== Taxonomy ==
The conventional Linnean taxonomy places birds in the Class Aves within the Subphylum Vertebrata. Reptilia, the conventional Class of reptiles, includes crocodiles and relatives, lizards and snakes, turtles, and the tuatara. However, as birds are now known to be dinosaurs, they should be grouped with archosaurs, including the extant crocodiles and the extinct pterosaurs. Hence the conventional classification does not reflect current state of the evolutionary evidence. Zoologists continue to use Class Aves as the taxonomic group of birds but recognise that it is a sub-group of the Superorder Dinosauria, which in turn is a member of the Archosauria, which includes crocodiles and the extinct pterosaurs. The higher classification of reptiles (including birds) is not fully resolved but a common view is that current evidence indicates that the archosaurs (including birds) form a group of similar rank to the lepidosaurs, which include lizards, snakes, the tuatara, and the extinct mosasaurs and plesiosaurs.<ref>Benton, 2004. Vertebrate Paleontology</ref>
== Creationary view ==
== Creationary view ==