Move Over Dinosaurs, Make Room for the Birds

In the 20th century, modern birds would rarely appear alongside dinosaurs in pictures or film. This is because it didn’t fit the secular belief system that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago and then modern birds evolved later from dinosaurs. And up until recently, the fossil record did not support the inclusion of modern birds in paleoart.

However, in the 2000’s, new fossil finds and increasingly better scanning technology began to reveal that modern birds did exist at the same time as dinosaurs. Modern birds began to appear in dinosaur art and became increasingly common. More evidence supporting this trend has surfaced within the last few months.

Fossils of gull-like birds, diving birds, and birds similar to ducks and geese were discovered in the Prince Creek Formation in northern Alaska.(1) According to the report, they were nesting there during the Cretaceous period, 73 million years ago.

A fossil of a quail-sized bird was discovered in China and reported to be from the Jurassic Period, about 150 million years ago.(2) It was clearly designed for flight, unlike Archaeopteryx, said to be from the same time period. Archaeopteryx has been featured as an evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds. But this new fossil find shows modern birds existed at the same time as this so-called “link”.

Nature reported the discovery that a waterfowl lived in Antarctica during the late Cretaceous, 69.2–68.4 million years ago.(3) A picture posted online depicted this bird looking similar to a duck, floating on a pond, as a pterosaur soars high in the background.

These recent discoveries agree with – and were predicted by – God’s Word. In Genesis 1:21, we find out God created every winged bird on day 5 of creation week. He created them to fly through the sky (Genesis 1:20). And on day 6, He created the land animals, which included dinosaurs (Genesis 1:24-25). God created the flying birds before the dinosaurs!

The millions of years ago language used in these articles is conjecture based on man’s word, not God’s. It is based in the theory of evolution, which requires long ages for bacteria to become people. However, God’s Word perfectly describes why we have the fossil record and when it formed. The global flood of the days of Noah (Genesis 6-8) rapidly buried both birds and dinosaurs across the earth in sediment, thousands – not millions – of years ago. It makes sense that we have found more fossilized dinosaurs than birds, since many of the birds were able to take flight and were not instantly buried in the rapid sedimentation.

From Antarctica to the Arctic, from China to North America, modern birds were diversified and thriving alongside dinosaurs.

Today, any scientifically accurate depiction of dinosaurs, including paleoart and museum reconstructions, should include modern-type birds displaying behaviors such as flying, nesting, and scavenging.

Science changes as technology increases and further discoveries are made. But God’s Word is always true. Science will increasingly confirm what the Bible has told us all along. Thank You, Lord, for giving us such a special revelation!

The Creation Experience Museum in Branson has been proudly displaying truthful exhibits and artwork of birds alongside dinosaurs for many years, before it became scientifically accepted. The Museum tells hundreds of visitors each year the truths of God’s Word.