Opinionation taken to an art form. An essay to piss just about everyone off, but not easily refutable in toto. Try it. Paleontologists have long thought that Archaeopteryx fossils, including this one discovered in Germany, placed the dinosaur at the base of the bird evolutionary tree. Recent evidence suggests the beast may have been a birdlike dinosaur. (Image credit: Humboldt Museum für Naturkunde Berlin) This is atrociously long, criminally even, by internet standards but I post it anyway because I get occasional requests. Few will read it, which is understandable. Apologies. The Devil made me do it. Regular readers, if there is one, will have seen most of it before since in large part it is a gluing together of several columns.