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The dinosaurs never really went extinct — at least not in the way you might imagine. Instead, many of them evolved into a class of animals that's still very present on our planet: birds.
2016-03-15
A new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, "Dinosaurs Among Us," shows how enormous, fearsome beasts like the Tyrannosaurs Rex became parrots and chickadees. This transition wasn't quick, and many of the famous dinosaurs we know today, like the T. Rex, sported feathers long before they resembled anything close to modern birds.
Check out these weird transitional forms that have changed much of what we thought we knew about the dinosaurs that ruled the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago.
Dinosaurs like the Yutyrannus huali, a 1.5 ton relative of T. rex that lived 125 million years ago, were covered in feathery fuzz. When scientists discovered this beast in 2012, it was some of the first concrete evidence that <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-discover-a-gigantic-feathered-tyrannosaur-172633563/?no-ist">even the mighty T. rex might have been sort of fluffy</a>. The name means "beautiful feathered tyrant."
While <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/lost-worlds/2012/oct/17/dinosaurs-fossils">the jury is still out on whether the T. rex itself had feathers</a>, many scientists <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/palaeontology-the-truth-about-t-rex-1.13988>">now think</a> they might have had some kind of proto-feathers — Jurassic Park be damned.
Zhao Chuang; courtesy of Peking Natural Science Organization
The T. rex even had a wishbone. Scientists once believe these bones (technically called furculae) helped strengthen bodies for flight. But this wishbone from the giant, earthbound T. Rex showed that its purpose was not just for flying.
So if feathers weren't for flight, what use were they? There are few theories. One clue came from X-ray studies, where scientists noticed that modern baby birds flapped their wings to aid them in climbing steep slopes. Paleontologists believe that dinosaurs may have used their rudimentary wings for this purpose, long before they could fly.
Ashley Heers/Brown University XROMM Facility
The Citipati osmolskae — another flightless, feathered dino — looked nothing like a T. rex, but both were therapods: carnivorous dinosaurs that walked on two feet — and eventually <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/saurischia/theropoda.html">evolved into modern birds</a>.
This fossil of Citipati osmolskae was an important find: It provided <a href="http://naturalhistory.si.edu/exhibits/backyard-dinosaurs/how-did-dinosaurs-behave.cfm">evidence that dinosaurs cared for their young</a>. It seemed to be protecting its eggs with its forearms, a position modern birds use when brooding (also known as sitting on their eggs).
This Khaan mckennai was an oviraptorid, a small, birdlike dinosaur that — scientists believe — also sat on its eggs.
Zhao Chuang; courtesy of Peking Natural Science Organization
The Oviraptorosaur is related to the T.Rex, too, but it's more closely related to modern birds, which have toothless beaks — just like this frightening beast. When scientists discovered a 500-pound Oviraptorosaur called Anzu wyliei in 2014, <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140319-dinosaurs-feathers-animals-science-new-species/">they called it</a> "the chicken from hell" and said it was "as close as you can get to a bird without being a bird."
Zhao Chuang; courtesy of Peking Natural Science Organization
The velociraptor is a good illustration of the dinosaur-bird transition. It had birdlike feet with three front-facing toes, hinged ankles, and feathers on its forearms and tail that <a href="http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/prehistoric/velociraptor-mongoliensis/">may have been used as a mating display</a>.
But not all feathered dinosaurs were famous, fearsome theropods like T. rexes and raptors. Sinornithosaurus had limbs that were covered in feathers (similar to modern birds), but it was not capable of flight. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/feb/07/features11.g22">Its discovery in 1996</a> was an early suggestion that birds and dinosaurs might be directly linked.
When the diminutive, vegetarian Tianyulong (related to dinos like Stegosaurus and Triceratops) was <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/03/18/tianyulong-a-fuzzy-dinosaur-that-makes-the-origin-of-feath/">discovered in 2009</a>, scientists realized that all kinds of dinosaurs might be more bird-like than they originally thought.
While many dinosaurs are now depicted with feathers, we can't know exactly what they looked like — or what color their feathers were. The Byronosaurus, shown here, was a large brained dinosaur who lived in the Late Cretaceous period, about 80 million years ago.
Zhao Chuang; courtesy of Peking Natural Science Organization
This Byronosaurus died while it was in the middle of hatching, surrounded by non-hatched eggs.
This dinosaur, a microraptor, is one of the smallest known dinosaurs — and among the most birdlike. It had feathers on both its front and hind legs. In 2008, when NOVA interviewed Yale paleontologist Jacques Gauthier about the puzzling discovery of the microraptor, he <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/four-winged-dinosaur.html">put it plainly</a>: "Birds are dinosaurs. That's why they look like dinosaurs."
Zhao Chuang; courtesy of Peking Natural Science Organization
Even with feathers, though, most dinosaurs looked very little like the birds we know today. Anchiornis huxleyi, which lived in what is now China 161 million years ago, wasn't even capable of powered flight. But its wings provided enough lift to jump to advantageous perches and glide.
Zhao Chuang; courtesy of Peking Natural Science Organization
The Confuciusornis sanctus, however, is considered a bird — not just a bird-like dinosaur. It already had many features of modern birds, like a beak and a feathered tail, though it probably couldn't fly well. It didn't have the strong breastbone needed to support powerful wing muscles.
Zhao Chuang; courtesy of Peking Natural Science Organization
This bird also looked more like something you might see in your backyard today. Called Messelornis cristata, it lived about 47 million years ago and is related to modern cranes. When fossils of the species were found in Germany, its feathers were preserved. One sample even had <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Morlo/publication/233791418_Diet_of_Messelornis_(Aves_Gruiformes)_an_Eocene_bird_from_Germany/links/547323860cf216f8cfae9e74.pdf">a tiny fish still lodged in its esophagus</a>.
Zhao Chuang; courtesy of Peking Natural Science Organization
Archaeopteryx was considered the first true bird when scientists discovered it in 1861. Found shortly after Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution, it's an excellent transitional example of evolution at work. With teeth and claws but also feathers and wings, it's seen as <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/birds/archaeopteryx.html">a key link between birds and reptiles</a>.
Zhao Chuang; courtesy of Peking Natural Science Organization
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Lauren F. Friedman edits science stories at Business Insider and oversees the site's health coverage, from breaking news to reported features. She was previously an editor at Psychology Today, a fellow at The Forward, and a contributing writer for Philadelphia City Paper.She has also written for Scientific American, Scientific American Mind, The Philadelphia Inquirer, OnEarth, and other publications, and she's appeared on TV shows like Good Morning America and The Debrief to talk about health news.Lauren has a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and did post-graduate work in cognitive science at the University of Pennsylvania. She also studied science journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where she now teaches Introduction to Health Journalism. She's a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and a founding member of Neuwrite 2.
Sean was an intern for Tech Insider, covering science that raises eyebrows. He has written and fact checked for Popular Science and holds a degree in journalism from Northwestern University.
