Which Came First: the Dinosaur or the Bird?

Which Came First: the Dinosaur or the Bird?
Michael Balter

The consensus is in: Birds are living dinosaurs. But how that epic evolutionary leap took place remains one of science’s greatest mysteries.

The Structure & Motion Laboratory at the Royal Veterinary College’s Hertfordshire campus, ...

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... evolutionary biologist Ashley Heers ...

... watching birds for much of her life. But as a postdoctoral researcher studying avian evolution, she sees them for what most paleontologists think they really are: living dinosaurs. ... She is using the latest video and computer modeling technology to study how baby birds develop the ability to fly, looking for clues as to how dinosaurs evolved into birds—one of the most dramatic and successful evolutionary transformations in the history of life on earth.

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... In the course of her research, she has piled up considerable evidence that baby birds do indeed resemble the avian dinosaur ancestors, which had feathers but little if any ability to fly.

... while the chick relied mostly on its legs to make the leap, it also flapped its wings between two and three times, adding just enough lift to successfully bridge the gap. “They can’t yet fly very far,” Heers says, “but those tiny little wings are still very useful.” This strongly suggests, she adds, that even if early dinos evolved feathers for other reasons—to keep warm or for peacock-like sexual displays—they were already on their way to becoming birds.

Much more
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/january-february-2015/which-came-first-dinosaur-or-bird?utm_source=engagement&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2015-03-19_email_wingspan