This idea was punted around for a long time and gained momentum during the “dinosaur renaissance” of the 1970s. By 1996, paleontologists had begun to find fuzzy

This idea was punted around for a long time and gained momentum during the “dinosaur renaissance” of the 1970s. By 1996, paleontologists had begun to find fuzzy, fluffy, feathery dinosaurs that confirmed what had been proposed on skeletal grounds—birds are just an offshoot of the dinosaur family tree. There is a part of me that wants this to be the result of a mischievous entity watching from on high and thinking "oooh, I should probably hide some bones to match that theory, why didn't I think of it when I put the dinosaurs there in the first place..."