dinosaurs are
According to the traditional paleontological interpretations of Earth’s history, the dinosaurs are believed to have dominated the ecosystem for more than 100 million years. [1]
Today, many ideas about dinosaurs are changing, and the fossils at Dinosaur National Monument continue to help us learn more about these fascinating animals. [2]
Using proper terminology, birds are avian dinosaurs; other dinosaurs are non-avian dinosaurs, and (strange as it may sound) birds are technically considered reptiles. [3]
From the most primitive Triassic forms to the most advanced ones of the latest Cretaceous, all dinosaurs share defining traits that distinguish them from their closest archosaurian relatives. [4]
According to this interpretation, animals such as the dinosaurs are believed to have lived on the earth for 200 million years. [5]
As we have mentioned above, dinosaurs are modified archosaurs. [6]
The dinosaurs weren’t really lizards, and most of them weren’t even terrible. [2]
For over 160 million years in the Mesozoic Era, large dinosaurs dominated every terrestrial niche, appearing during the later part of the Triassic, flourishing through the Jurassic, and surviving until the very end of the Cretaceous. [4]
The word dinosaurs refers to a superorder of reptiles distinguished by a common set of anatomical characteristics (see the section on dinosaur anatomy, below) of which the most important is a modification to the reptilian hip to allow the legs to be under the body rather than sprawled out to the sides. [6]
Ask your average paleontologist who is familiar with the phylogeny of vertebrates and they will probably tell you that yes, birds (avians) are dinosaurs. [3]
But some of the first dinosaur fossils ever found were huge bones and teeth, very lizard-like except for their size, and so the idea of monstrous lizards was born. [2]
A wealth of evidence has been accumulated in support of the notion that a group of carnivorous dinosaurs, theropods known as maniraptorans, contain the predecessors of birds-65 million years after the Cretaceous mass extinction exterminated the last surviving species of large dinosaurs, their living descendants (birds) continue to be a main component of most terrestrial ecosystems. [4]
It is furthermore believed that they went extinct about 65 million years ago, about 55 million years before the first humans appeared on Earth. [1]
It has a skull displaying many characters primitive to archosaurs, and a distinctly archosaur foot, resembling that of archosaurs such as Euparkia (and that of early sauropods such as Plateosaurus). [6]
Biblical support for this perspectives is drawn from the Genesis 1 where it states that all animals were created on the sixth day of creation along with humans. [1]
Sources:
[1] Dinosaur - CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
[2] Dinosaur National Monument Homepage
[3] Dinobuzz: Dinosaur-Bird Relationships
[4] Dinosaurs
[5] Dinosaurs and the Biblical Flood
[6] Dinosaurs - SkepticWiki