Hypotheses On the Origin of Birds Essay

“We often think of the T-Rex as this huge crocodile-like bipedal reptile but in fact, its closest modern relative are birds and the T-Rex was actually the dinosaur equivalent of a chicken” explains Linda Rushmore, head researcher at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences’ Paleontology

Anders Lyndon of the University of TA Biology Department created an evolutionist video analysis entitled “The Evolution of Birds and Flight: It's impossible Part 2” (Lyndon, 2009). Lyndon described how evolutionists explain the evolution of the Theropod species into flying birds (Lyndon, 2009). Human beings did not discover flight ability for “thousands of years”, yet Lyndon questioned how birds that lacked “an intelligent brain” could complete such a task without the ability being intuitively programmed in them from birth (Lyndon, 2009). Lyndon presented the three basic theories surrounding the evolution of theropods into flight capable birds: “(1) Arboreal, (2) Ground- up (3)

There are numerous counts of evidence showing the processes of evolution and how species ultimately evolved over millions of years. One of the most compelling hypotheses behind evolution was presented by Charles Darwin with his study of the Galapagos Islands. His study showing the various different birds and their different evolutions they went through to be able to survive the changes of weather and relocation. The birds he studied had to change in order to survive, or as he simply puts it: “Survival of the Fittest”. Evolution is the changing of past organisms to diversify and have the ability to fit better in their environment and survive. Diving into the dinosaur cladogram, studies have shown that ancient dinosaurs, over hundreds of millions of years ago, evolved into our modern day birds, and not lizards as many suppose. It became apparent that there would not be enough food for a 9 ton dinosaur to consume on a daily basis forever. So evolution occurred and dinosaurs evolved to become more efficient so they could survive more effectively in their

To compare the impact of evolution on different organisms a study was conducted by: carefully examining the species of birds with each other. This was accomplished through using a sample population of 200 birds. Moreover, there were other factors that were taken into account (in order to ensure objectivity and accuracy). The below table is illustrating those factors that were considered to be the most important during this study. ("Evolution Lab," 2012)

The Glen Rose Trackway is a 107-million-year–old series of fossilized dinosaur footprints. Excavated from the bed of the Paluxy River in Texas, the trackway gives a picture of dinosaurs that in some ways is more striking than that offered by fossils. Collected in 1938, the smaller prints are from a theropod, a dinosaur that walked on two hind feet. The larger ones were probably left by a plant-eating sauropod, such as Apatosaurus, the hind feet of which measured 3 feet in length. Birds are dinosaurs. Just as humans are both primates and mammals because we descended from the first primate and the first mammal, birds are dinosaurs because they descended from the first theropod and the first dinosaur. Their upright stance came from the very first dinosaur.

Parrsboro’s very own, local fossil collector Eldon George discovered the world’s smallest dinosaur footprints. They were made by a creature no bigger than a robin. His discovery proved the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs.

The reading and the lecture are both theories of why dinasours were endotherms or cold blooded aninmals. Whereas as the author of the reading states that there is not enough evidence to assume that dinosaurs were endotherms. The lecture casts doubt on the main points made in the reading by providing three reasons.

Researchers believe that dinosaurs shrunk in size while adapting to new changes in the environment. Researchers believe birds descended from two-legged dinosaurs, Theropods. The skull itself is believed to have gone from a Velociraptor, to Archaeopteryx, to modern day chickens and pigeons. Some differences from the Archaeopteryx and chicken are the size of the brain, eye cavities, and beak. The Archaeoptreryx had teeth, where as the chicken does not.

Subclass – Archeorinthes –*Fossil birds (Jurassic birds of Mesozoic Age). *Flight feathers present. *Long tail without a pygostyle. *Carpals and metacarpals free. *Abdominal ribs present. *Hand reduced to three digits.

Disregarding the feathers of Longisquama, and therefore disregarding its link to Archaeopteryx, these scientists still fully support the dinosaur-bird link. As mentioned before, the extreme majority of paleontologists still subscribe to this idea. A recent discovery in the western region of China seems to clarify the link between dinosaurs and birds. Living at roughly the same time as Archaeopteryx, Sinovenator changii is very closely related to the bird yet is classified as a dinosaur.5

Birds are descendants of theropod dinosaurs. In the article, “ A Chicken with Dinosaur Legs? Scientists say that’s not so Strange,”it mentions that dinosaur embryos and chicken embryos have similarities. Today, chicks inside eggs have dinosaur fibulas for a short period of time, it disappears before it hatches. This evidence suggests that dinosaurs and chickens are indeed related. The evidence suggest this because during the embryo phase they share similar features. You many wonder how this may support my claim but since chicken are birds the evidence proves that chickens came from those magnificent creatures. The only thing that stopped the chicken from developing the features were a few genes. Another piece of evidence from the video “The

     A forum at UCLA seems to offer more of an opposing view to this question. Scientifically the idea that the chicken came first is more appealing. They tend to go along with the theory of evolution provided from Darwin. UCLA students hypothesis that since chickens are a bird species and that birds evolved from dinosaurs, the chicken would have to come first on the timeline. I tend to agree

The word dinosaur was invented in 1842 by Richard Owen. Dinosaur comes from the Greek word “deinos” and “sauros” which translates to fearfully great lizard (“Learn about Dinosaurs”). Dinosaurs are always named in Greek and usually named after their unique fossils, where they 're found, it’s size or a person. Before a dinosaur can be officially named it must be approved by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. It’s difficult to figure out how dinosaurs sounded, mated, behaved, what color/pattern they were and which ones are male or female. Paleontologists have however been able to discover that dinosaurs hatch from eggs, their bones have growth rings which can help figure out their age and that the larger dinosaurs lived for roughly 100 years and smaller ones for less. All dinosaurs evolved from other reptiles during the Triassic period. Dinosaurs are either herbivores or carnivores and are divided into two major groups. Bird hipped, Ornithischian, or lizard hipped, Saurischa. In the Saurischa hipped dinosaurs the pubis bone is down and to the front but in Ornithischian hipped it is point down and towards the tail (“Zoom Dinosaur”). The next step was to examine how dinosaurs behaved and their characteristics.

First, Crichton noted that duckbilled dinosaurs were herbivores which are supported by a trace fossil found in the coal beds of the western North America that indicated footprints with plant fossils (Martin 2006). Furthermore, duckbilled dinosaurs lived in a vegetated environment that they had to consume enough food relative to their body size. Duckbilled dinosaurs had lengthened their skull and smoothed snout to obtain and process more food. The Dilophosaurus was described as two curved crests that extended from the eyes to the nose. The crest created a V shape on the head with red and black stripes on the crests (Crichton, 1990). Based on fossil evidence, the Dilophosaurus had two crests on the head, but there was no indication of the pigment of the crest. Next, the book stated that the T. rex does not bite the prey, instead, it twisted and tore the

Our modern birds, the Neornithes, has been divided into two “super-orders,” the Palaeognathae (ratites and tinamous) and the Neognathae (other bird orders). Palaeognathae itself is divided into two orders, the Strathioniformes and Tinamiformes. There are five extant species and two extinct species in the Strathioniformes, or the ratites. In total, there are at least 30 species within the ratites family. 16 of these species are now extinct. The rest of the extant species make up only 0.1% of the total bird species in the world.