Thursday, December 4, 2014
Did Birds Really Evolve From Dinosaurs Or From Something Else?- Achyut Kasi
It was widely known in the past that birds evolved from dinosaurs on the ground. However, that idea is starting to have a closer investigation with the discovery of a new fossil found in Inner Mongolia. Personally, I would have never thought that there was a link between ground-dwelling dinosaurs and flying birds. Instead, I would have thought that there could have been a relation between a type of flying dinosaur to birds. The article goes on about how with a thorough examination of the newly discovered fossil, these researchers were able to determine that the fossil is of an early type of bird called Scansoriopteryx. This bird is closely related to tree-dwelling archosaurs who seem to have mastered basic aerodynamic maneuvers such as gliding. Also, these archosaurs lived way before the dinosaurs so the birds are not directly related to dinosaurs at all.
I chose this article because I have always been interested in the past and findings such as this pique my interests. It was always fun for me to find out how one species was created as a result of evolution of other species. The links between the different species was fun to look at because you can see the progression from one organism to another and some possible advantages that could have came out of the evolution.
I found this article to be interesting because I like when people prove something to be incorrect. What gets me excited is the fact that something that was widely believed to be true was simply wrong through intensive, detailed investigations. The time of dinosaurs or anytime in the past is a beautiful mystery. No human was there to witness anything but it is important to find out and understand the past so that we, as humans, can learn everything there is to know about our sacred home, Earth.
A link to the article can be found here:
http://scienceagogo.com/news/20140610064636.shtml
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Great article! I found that just like a couple animals today, this Scansoriopteryx could glide very well. It is also pretty cool that the birds lived before the dinosaurs even did. Are there any hints from the fossils other possible evolution for the birds?
ReplyDeleteIt also get me interested when a scientist disproves a theory or hypothesis because i feel that underlines the true reason of science. Science is our tool that helps guide us in the process of finding and clarifying truth. I also found it interesting that these birds were actually not dinosaurs but predessors of the great creatures that scientists believe were the starting point of the evolution of many animals we see today.
ReplyDeleteThis was quite interesting to read about, the whole theory of the evolution of dinosaurs to birds may be completely wrong. These ancient birds remind me of todays "flying" squirrels. Like the archosaurs, they too have mastered the art of gliding and other basic flying maneuvers. This makes me wonder, is it possible that this species of squirrel will evolve over time to become true flying squirrels? Or will they stay the "gracefully-falling" squirrels for the foreseeable future? Either way, good article.
ReplyDeleteThis article contains a lot of important information on dinosaurs. I found this interesting because learning about our past is important. We can learn where we can from and how our world to be, and this is a step in understanding that process.
ReplyDeleteThis article particularly catches my eye because I have an interest in fossils and own many books on the subject. I'm been working for a while on identifying fossils, including those of dinosaurs and ancient birds that are discussed in this article, so this discovery is potentially very important and I am very interested to find out more about what information this bird can provide about evolution and prehistoric life.
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