context: In the early years of paleontology, dinosaurs appeared as languid, bulky, and clumsy cold-blooded reptiles. However, with the discovery of more complete dinosaur skeletons in the western United States, beginning in the 1870s, scientists were able to offer better interpretations regarding the anatomy and physiology of dinosaurs. Edward Drinker Cope suggested that at least some dinosaurs were active and agile animals, as depicted in the picture of two fighting driptosaurs created by Charles R. Knight [1]. Parallel to the development of the Darwinian doctrine of evolution, the discovery of the archeopteryx and compsognath led Thomas Henry Huxley to the conclusion that dinosaurs were closely associated with birds [2]. Despite these considerations, the image of dinosaurs as large lizard-like creatures was already rooted in culture, and most aspects of their paleobiology were still interpreted as typically “reptilian” until the end of the first half of the twentieth century [3]. Since the 1960s, with the advent of the fundamental work of Robert T. Becker, “The Renaissance of Dinosaurs,” ideas about dinosaurs and their physiology have changed dramatically. This was facilitated, among other things, by the discovery of feathered dinosaurs in the Early Cretaceous sediments of China, supporting the connection of birds with small maniaptors.
question: Since what year have scientists been able to offer better interpretations regarding the anatomy and physiology of dinosaurs?
answers.text: 1870s