Are dinosaurs really related to birds?
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People often say that birds are related to dinosaurs, but that’s really not true – birds aren’t related to dinosaurs… they are dinosaurs! About 65 million years ago, a huge extinction wiped out all dinosaur groups except for one. That group of dinosaurs went on to become all the birds we see today.
The scientific question of within which larger group of animals birds evolved has traditionally been called the ‘origin of birds’. Fossil evidence also demonstrates that birds and dinosaurs shared features such as hollow, pneumatized bones, gastroliths in the digestive system, nest-building and brooding behaviors.
Why are birds called dinosaurs?
In the view of most paleontologists today, birds are living dinosaurs. The best explanation for the presence of these shared characteristics is that they existed in a common ancestor, from which both dinosaurs and birds are descended.
What dinosaurs did birds evolve from?
Modern birds descended from a group of two-legged dinosaurs known as theropods, whose members include the towering Tyrannosaurus rex and the smaller velociraptors.
Great Blue Heron. This bird looks so prehistoric it’s crazy.
Are birds really living descendants of dinosaurs?
Many scientists today believe that birds are the living descendants of dromaesaurids and therefore should be considered as living dinosaurs . The presence of feathers alone is not enough evidence to conclude that birds evolved from dinosaurs.
Why are birds the only surviving dinosaurs?
Birds are the only lineage of dinosaurs that survived after an asteroid smashed into the Earth 66 million years ago, causing a mass extinction. Now Canadian scientists think they’ve figured out why.
Did birds evolve from some dinosaurs?
Birds are thought to have evolved from theropod dinosaurs around 150 million years ago.