Dr. Bird nodded, still smiling, and the fluorescent lights in the ceiling reflected off his gold and black scales. Dr. Bird's species was, in his own words, “Best described simply as a dragon, so as not to arouse any fury in my very good friend, Jim Dodd, who is extremely passionate about paleontology and would become extremely irritated with me if I went around telling people I was a dinosaur when my alterations take inspiration from several dozen species of dinosaur and other ancient species, rather than just one single species of dinosaur. Trust me. You do not want to see Jim fired up about paleontology.”.
I just think it's funny. I've decided they're friends. Jim Dodd would literally rather die than "admit" that a fake animal some guy just made up actually exists in the fossil record.