Theropod Dinosaurs Research Paper

“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

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

Scientists say reptiles evolved from amphibians 340 million years ago. The first reptile was an insect eater. Reptiles were more adaptable and able to

Birds are closely related to crocodiles because they share the same ancestry with the dinosaurs. To compare the crocodile and lizard, one would think the lizard is closely related to crocodiles, as we read in our text, "similar structures don't always reveal common ancestry." Crocodiles and birds evolved having the same common ancestry as the dinosaur. Lizards, on the other hand, do not share a close common ancestor with crocodiles or dinosaurs, their common ancestry is more distant.

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.

Pterosaurs flourished during the age of dinosaurs, more than 150 million years ago.  The earliest of their kinds are small flying reptiles. Yes, they do fly, with long tails and sturdy bodies and surprisingly, some were also extraordinarily large. However, roughly

Dinosaurs started shrinking to enable flight. In Jurassic Park, they compare the way dinosaurs walk, the size or their arms and legs, the hinged knee and ankle, the bobbing of the head when they walk, and their toes. They had to compare them to reptiles because Dr. Wu and to supplement other DNA in to the broken DNA they discovered for clone.

Could birds be the closest relative there is to a dinosaur? Well they have said to of survived the comet that hit Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs as they were able to hang in the skies out of danger. Another common feature that birds have over mammals and other animals is that they are egg laying just like reptiles and discoveries show that the eggs have the same micro structure. Palaeontologists compared the skeletal characteristics of dinosaur skeletons and bird skeletons and saw that both had many common traits. Hollow, thin walled bones, S shaped curved neck, 4 toed but only supported by three main toes and many

Crichton says, “the birdlike quality was reinforced by the way they moved. Bending to drink from the river, then rising to snarl and hoot” (Crichton, Jurassic Park, Pg.320). Here the behavior of the dinosaur is described as if it was a bird. This shows that dinosaurs may have performed their tasks in the same ways modern birds do. There are other things that dinosaurs could have done to help prove that birds evolved from them.

As birds, like mammals, are warm-blooded, they too are able to sustain their own body heat throughout the year. If dinosaurs were able to, as well, that would compose even more evidence in favor of dinosaurs sharing more traits in common with birds than with reptiles, as their given name, “terrible lizard”, would wrongly infer. Consequently, it seems that this discovery brings out a whole new set of questions as to how the dinosaurs truly ended up dying off at the end of the Mesozoic era, whether it be that their food supply dwindled or a combination of catastrophes that

First, the author notes that since modern reptiles are cold-blood and have very low metabolism, ancient reptiles such Pterosaurs could not provide enough energy for powered flight due to their low body metabolism. The professor refutes this statement by referring to the fact that fossil remaining of Pterosaurs proved that, similar to warm-blood animals like birds, these animals had

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

One of the first rockets to fly was a wooden bird. Aulus Gellius, a Roman, wrote a story of Archytas, a Greek who lived in Tarentum. Tarentum is in modern day southern Italy. Approximately 400 B.C., Archytas entertained the people of Tarentum with flying a wooden pigeon. Steam pushed the bird that was on suspended wires. The bird used the action-reaction principle. It was not until the seventeenth century that the action-reaction principle was not a scientific law. That means that Archytas creation of the wooden pigeon was way before its time.

The smart, quick theropod dinosaur that provided growth to birds may have had feathers, but it did not fly and undoubtedly didn’t resemble birds today. Just replicate of a pigeon’s acrobatics. Or the legendary dive of the peregrine falcon, which can spot pigeons from 3,000 feet and drop to earth, at 200 miles an-hour, for a deadly strike. That’s a long way from running on land, a transformation that improves quickness and agility, demanding not only wings and flight feathers but strident senses and refined brains for long distance vision and high-speed action. Sure enough, birds’ skulls have room for relatively vast eyes and for a brain that have expanded in area dedicated to the visual sense. Although, Randall’s periodicity model projects that a major meteoroid is not expected to hit the earth for another 32 million years, our civilization’s impact on the planet is like that of a slow moving comet directed for destiny, but different from the one that changed dinosaurs, Randall reminds us, we still have a chance to avoid its

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.