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Twentieth-century paleontologists have fallen into the bad habit of reconstructing the dinosaurs' life functions by using crocodiles as a living model. But the earliest researchers of the nineteenth century proved beyond a doubt that the dinosaurs' powerful hind limbs must have operated like the limbs of gigantic birds.

— Robert T. Bakker The Dinosaur Heresies (1986)

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More quotes by Robert T. Bakker

The dinosaurs are not extinct. The colorful and successful diversity of the living birds is a continuing expression of basic dinosaur biology.

Dinosaur Renaissance (1985)

I do not believe birds deserve to be put in a taxonomic class separate from dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Renaissance (1985)

Our own mammalian order, the primates, prides itself on hand-eye coordination, monkeys, apes, and man are all good manipulators. But no mammal can rival the chameleon for eye-tongue coordination.

The Dinosaur Heresies (1986)

The dinosaur is for most people the epitome of extinctness, the prototype of an animal so maladapted to a changing environment that it dies out, leaving fossils but no descendants.

Dinosaur Renaissance (1985)

Both birds and crocs have the identical plan to their specialized gizzard apparatus, and this type of internal food processor is absent in the other "reptiles" - lizards, snakes, and turtles.

The Dinosaur Heresies (1986)

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