Feathered Dinos?

Lately, it has been declared that birds evolved from a group of dinosaurs called maniraptoran theropods, small meat-eating dinosaurs like the Velociraptor. There is an abundance of evidence originating from different sources that birds evolved from carnivorous dinosaurs that lived during the Mesozoic Era. The primary source of evidence supporting this scientific view is the similarity in the shape of birds’ bones and many maniraptorans’ bones, but extraordinary new discoveries have included more pieces of evidence. One involves many features from the eggs of these dinosaurs. A lot of fossils have revealed that not only did maniraptorans act like birds when they lay their eggs, but that the eggs also looked like bird eggs. Another line of evidence involves a handful of pictures that help us understand the maniraptoran theropods’ behavior. Fossils that show animals brooding or resting also are startlingly similar to the behaviors of living birds. Yet, maybe the most interesting new line of evidence originates from the discovery of soft tissues identified as belonging to the skeletons of these predatory dinosaurs is that many of these creatures’ fossils are now known to have been covered by plumage.

This evidence highlights the fact that many features thought to be limited to birds-like feathers or wishbones-have been discovered in the dinosaurian ancestor of birds. Even flight was probably a gift given to birds from the maniraptorans! If the new fossils have cleared up the old controversial subject of the origin of birds, other fossils have offered a vivid testimony of early avian evolution. Buried in these fossils lied the secrets to how birds perfected their flying abilities and how they evolved warm bloodedness. Today, known av...

... middle of paper ...

...ng fish.

Of course, not all birds that lived during the Mesozoic Era, Age of the Large Dinosaurs, looked as unfamiliar as Archaeopteryx, Confuciusornis, and Hesperornis. The early representatives of today's birds can also be found in this remote era of our past. In several continents, rocks originating from the late Cretaceous period have started providing the remains of early shore-birds, ducks, and other birds. They were the ancestors of the true heirs of the magnificent dinosaurs that traveled the Earth so long ago, millions of years, in fact. It is for certain, if not that humans evolved from apes, but that evolution is most definitely real, for there is inevitable proof that the birds we know today evolved from the thunder lizards of the past.

Works Cited

http://www.nhm.org/site/research-collections/dinosaur-institute/dinosaurs/birds-late-evolution-dinosaurs