“The theory that birds are the equivalent of living dinosaurs and that dinosaurs were feathered is so full of holes that the creationists have jumped all over it, using the evolutionary nonsense of ‘dinosaurian science’ as evidence against the theory of evolution,” he said.
“To paraphrase one such individual, ‘This isn't science . . . This is comic relief.’” -->(!!!)<--

Birds with Teeth

A couple of very early birds with teeth.

  1. Ichthyornis (135-70 million years ago) lived 50 million years before T-Rex.
    Hesperornis (80-65 million years ago) arose during the time of T-Rex, but would not have "evolved from" T-Rex in any manner, because Hersperornis' "feathered body had long legs with webbed feet. It was unable to fly or walk. Its wings were small, used for steering when diving underwater." And since Velociraptor was over in Asia, we can rule that beast out too.

    Modern bird's true ancestors in the Cretaceous:

    "The Cretaceous saw the rise and extinction of the toothed birds, Hesperornis and Ichthyornis. The earliest fossils of birds resembling loons, grebes, cormorants, pelicans, flamingos, ibises, rails, and sandpipers were from the Cretaceous."
    (Source).

    Ichthyornis, Kansas and Texas, USA, and in Alberta, Canada, Cretaceous, 135-70 million years ago. Arose BEFORE T-Rex and Velociraptor.
    Ichthyornis (meaning "fish bird") was a tern-like, extinct bird that lived alongside dinosaurs like T. rex and Triceratops. It lived in flocks, nested on shorelines, and hunted for fish in Cretaceous seas. Ichthyornis lived 135-70 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period.
    (Source)
    "A true prehistoric bird of the late Cretaceous period--not a pterosaur or feathered dinosaur--Ichthyornis looked remarkably like a modern seagull, with a long beak and tapered body. However, there were some major differences: this prehistoric bird had a full set of sharp, reptilian teeth planted in a very reptile-like jaw (which is one reason why the first remains of Ichthyornis were confused with those of a marine reptile, Mosasaurus)."
    (Source)
    In appearance, the teeth are very similar to those of the toothed bird, Ichthyornis, but are somewhat smaller.
    (Source)

  2. Hesperornis, western United States, Late Cretaceous, 80-65 million years ago.
    Arose at the same time as T-Rex and before Velociraptor.
    Hesperornis had a sleek, feathered body and long legs with webbed feet. Unable to fly or walk. Its wings were small, used for steering when diving underwater. Its long jaws had many small sharp teeth. It was a marine predator, eating fish, ammonites and belemnites. It lived in warm seas, coming ashore only to breed. Ungainly and vulnerable on land - Hesperornis couldn't walk - they crowded together in colonies for safety and chose inaccessible rocky outcrops.
    (Source) and (Source)

    "..Marsh found bones of previously unknown birds: slender, several feet in length, with powerful legs but very small, stubby wings. On a later expedition, Marsh found the skull of one of these birds, and discovered that it had teeth -- a trait missing from all modern birds, but present in the fossil Archaeopteryx, described only a few years earlier, and then as now the oldest and most primitive bird known."
    (Source)

New date for rise of mammals... 220-201 MYA...
More thought really needs to be invested in monotremes and marsupials.

The duck-billed platypus is a semiaquatic egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia. Platypuses are mammals and, like all mammals, are considered warm blooded.

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Interesting Related Links

For the Anti-Creationism Darwinist Among Us

Thales of Miletus

My Other Blog:
Genesis in the Ancient World
"The Jews integrated into Greek culture around 300 BC. Notably, much of the modern Biblical literature is actually Greek. Enlightened Greek thought becomes apparent in the opening of Genesis. "One of the first evolutionary theories was proposed by Thales of Miletus (640–546 BC) in the province of Ionia on the coast near Greece followed by Anaximander (550 B.C.) who speculated that life evolved from the water; lower forms of life, in a very primitive precursor to evolutionary theory."

Namely this *ouch!*

Evolution and Paleontology in the Ancient World
"...For Anaximander, the world had arisen from an undifferentiated, indeterminate substance, the apeiron. The Earth, which had coalesced out of the apeiron, had been covered in water at one stage, with plants and animals arising from mud. Humans were not present at the earliest stages; they arose from fish. This poem was quite influential on later thinkers, including Aristotle.
Had Anaximander looked at fossils? Did he study comparative fish and human anatomy? Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing what evidence Anaximander used to support his ideas. His theory bears some resemblance to evolutionary theory, but also seems to have been derived from various Greek myths, such as the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha, in which peoples or tribes are born from the Earth or from stones. His concept of the apeiron seems similar to the Tao of Chinese philosophy and religion, and to the "formless and void" Earth of the Hebrew creation account and other creation myths. However, even though Anaximander's ideas drew on the religious and mythical ideas of his time, he was still one of the first to attempt an explanation of the origin and evolution of the cosmos based on natural laws."
(Source, ucmp.berkeley.edu History)

[Sadly, what the site fails to mention is that the oldest known biblical manuscripts date no earlier than around 300 B.C., therefore, Anaximander (610-545 B.C.) could not have based any of his concepts on Biblical Hebrew. However it can be deduced, the Hebrew Genesis account was borrowed from mainstream Greek philosophy.] [The analysis by Harvard and several other University sources are quite impressive: (Scala Naturae of the Bible, Charles Darwin and Ancient Greek Philosophy)]