Many of the so called “dino bird” fossils recently found in China, in fact all, have been outed as fakes and the so called feathers were not feathers at all.
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People who refute evolution are as unconvinceable as atheists. Atheists wouldn’t believe in Christ if he turned water into wine right under their noses, and anti-evolutionists try to explain away the preponderant weight of scientific evidence which sustains evolution, with convoluted, distorted arguments which are more unbelievable than the theory they attempt to disprove.
The Archeopteryx has definite intermediate characteristics - wings, feathers, teeth, claws. The presumable dinosaurs which gave rise to birds had wishbones, hollows in their bones, the same foot structure, and in some cases, feathers.
“Why wouldn’t the flying lizards have been the ones to evolve into birds? “
They do have as close a skeletal similarity to birds as do Raptor like dinosaurs. Their flight was more similar to that of bats than of birds.
Actually the Chinese fake birds were in the news a couple of times in the 90s, also some fake dinosaur re-assemblys. Folks wanted to make a little money.