Brontosaurus, whose name means “Thunder Lizard,” is not an actual dinosaur. It is actually a mix of Apatosaurus, meaning “Deceptive Lizard,” and Camarasaurus, meaning “Chambered Lizard,” due to the hastiness of paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh.
From Dinosaurs to Birds
How Paleontologists Know Birds Descended from Dinosaurs
Feathered Deinonychus antirrhopus model at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Credit: Aaron Gustafson
Copyright: Wikimedia Commons
Birds are descendants of dinosaurs. Although this is not a new theory in the dinosaur world, there is now evidence that proves some dinosaurs evolved into birds.
In September of 2009, five different species of dinosaur fossils with feathers or feather-like structures were found in north-eastern China, according to The Telegraph. Before this find, the only possible link between dinosaurs and birds was archaeopteryx, which is the oldest known bird and it is also older than other feathered dinosaurs that had been found.
However, these archaeopteryx lived 145-150 million years ago, and these fossils are much older. The fossils were found in two different rock formations. One was in the tiaojishan, which means those fossils are 151-168 million years old, and the other set of fossils was found in the daohugou, which makes the fossils 158-164 million years old.
According to Dr. Xing, one of the lead scientists who discovered the fossils, said that one of the dinosaurs, anchiornis huxlevi, has plumage and feathered feet. He also said, “This fossil provides confirmation that the bird-dinosaur hypothesis is correct and supports the idea that birds descended from theropod dinosaurs, the group of predatory dinosaurs that include allosaurus and velociraptor.”
Before this discovery, scientists had found that Dilong paradoxus, an earlier cousin ofTyrannosaurus rex, had “at least a partial coat of hairlike feathers,” according to National Geographic. In 2004, Dilong comes from the Mandarin words for “emperoro” and “dragon,” andparadoxus refers to its feathers. Dilong was found in the Liaoning Province in northern China. Dilongis a five-foot long tyrannosaurid, (typically a large carnivorous dinosaur with short arms such as T-rex), that lived 130 million years ago.
Although paleontologists suspected tyrannosaurids had featherlike structures, Dilong was the first fossil to provide evidence of this. Mark Norell, who co-wrote the paper about Dilong, said that the discovery of Dilong fossils “supports theories that dinosaurs were birdlike, warm-blooded creatures that evolved feathers to stay warm-not to fly,” according to National Geographic.
The reason paleontologists predicted tyrannosaurids were related to birds was because they have a more recent common ancestor than Sinosauropteryx, which is the most primitive known feathered dinosaur. This made paleontologists infer that “the feathers of birds and other feathered dinosaurs are all expressions of the same evolutionary change,” according to National Geographic.
Paleontologists classify tyrannosaurids into the broader group coelurosaurs, which they believe evolved into birds. The tyrannosaurid Dilong’s head has many of the same characteristics as later tyrannosaurids, but it has a more primitive body and longer arms. The Dilong fossils had evidence of protofeathers, which are “precursors to the feathers found on modern birds.”
Norell said that adult tyrannosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, probably did not have primitive feathers, which indicates that the protofeathers were meant to keep warm-blooded dinosaurs warm, and not to help them fly. Because bigger animals do not need insulation to keep warm-think of the elephant-then the adult T-rex would not have needed feathers, and probably did not have feathers. However, it may have had feathers as a juvenile.
Other dinosaurs that have evidence of having feathers include Caudipteryx, Microraptor, andPedopenna, among others.
References:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1006_041006_feathery_dino_2.html
The Land Before Time Trivia
The Best Dinosaur Movie Ever
Charles Robert Knight [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Dinosaurs in the Media
The Five Best Movies and Television Shows Involving Dinosaurs
Model of Tyrannosaurus in ZOO Dvůr Králové, Czech Republic
Credit: Mistvan
Copyright: Wikimedia Commons
Dinosaurs have long fascinated and entertainedpeople. Just look at all the movies and television shows that have involved or been about dinosaurs. Kids and adults alike love dinosaurs, and they become more interesting the more we learn about them. Here is a top five list of my favorite movies and television shows featuring dinosaurs:Continue Reading …
From Birds to Dinosaurs
Transforming Birds into Dinosaurs
A photo of an emu, which according to Professor Horner, may be able to be turned into a dinosaur-like creature within 50 years Credit: J. Folmer Copyright: Wikimedia Commons
Canadian paleontologist Hans Larsson, who is the Canada Research Chair in Macro Evolution at McGill University in Montreal, said that he“believes by flipping certain genetic levers during a chicken embryo’s development, he can reproduce the dinosaur anatomy,” according toDiscovery News. Eventually, Larsson’s research may allow scientists to actually hatch prehistoric animals, although Larsson said he is not planning on trying to hatch dinosaurs right now. However, he has studied the evolution of birds for the past decade, and does want to show dinosaur traits in chickens. “It’s a demonstration of evolution,” he said.
Dinosaur traits may also soon be seen in emus. In the Discovery Channel show, Dinosaurs: Return to Life, Jack Horner, a professor and the paleontology advisor for the movies Jurassic Park, said it may be possible to retro-engineer a dinosaur from a bird. According to discoverychannel.co.uk, Horner thinks that an emu can be engineered to look like a dinosaur within 50 years. Horner said he will call this animal Emuasaurus.
Recently, new found fossils and advanced technology have shown that dinosaurs evolved into birds. According to Discovery News, in November of 2008, a new animal fossil was discovered in Montana that resembled a large bird, had feathers, laid eggs, and behaved like a bird. The fossil is 77 million years old, it is the fossil of a carnivorous animal, and it was either part of the group caenagnathid, emu-like dinosaurs, or it was a dromaeosaurid, feathered, bird-like theropods that included dinosaurs such as Velociraptor. Darla Zelenitsky, who led the study of this fossil, said in Discovery News, “We now know that egg-laying traits required gradual evolutionary changes.”
And in June of 2009, a new fossil that shows another link between dinosaurs and birds was discovered in China. Xing Xu, a Chinese paleontologist, and his team found the fossils in the Shishugou Formation in western China’s Junggar Basin, according to Discovery News. It was a small, young dinosaur that lived around 155 million years ago, it had a beak, and it is the only known herbivorous therapod. Theropods are dinosaurs that walk on two feet that are generally carnivores who lived during the Jurassic period. This particular dinosaur is the first known ceratosaur, which is a group in the theropod family, in Asia. This means that during the Jurassic period, there may have been more land connections between Asia and other continents than previously thought. Xu and his team named the dinosaur Limusaurus inextricabilis, which basically means the dinosaur that could not extricate itself from the mud.
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