Recent discoveries
2007-11-07
Dinosaurs breathed like penguins. Dinosaurs like Velociraptors
owe their fearsome reputation to the way they breathed, according
to a UK study. BBC
2007-09-24
Velociraptor dino 'had feathers'. The ferocious Velociraptor,
made famous in the movie Jurassic Park, was probably covered in
feathers. BBC
August, 2004
Bird brain reveals flight secrets
The computer-generated image revealed that the anatomy of the brain
corresponded very closely with that of modern flying birds.
It revealed well-developed semicircular canals in the inner ear, which
are used for balance, and enlarged optic lobes for vision. Both essential
features for efficient flight.
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3535272.stm
************************
07 March, 2002 Nature 416, 36 - 37 (2002)
Palaeontology: 'Modern' feathers on a non-avian dinosaur
MARK NORELL et al.
Discoveries of integumentary coverings on non-avian theropod dinosaurs
are becoming commonplace. But the only definitive evidence so far that
any of these animals had feathers as we know them today has come from
the oviraptorosaur Caudipteryx and the enigmatic coleurosaur Protarchaeopteryx,
both of which are considered by some to be secondarily flightless birds.
Here we describe the occurrence of pinnate feathers, which clearly feature
a rachis and barbs, on a small, non-avian dromaeosaur from northern
China. This finding indicates that feathers of
modern aspect evolved in dinosaurs before the emergence of birds and
flight.
http://www.nature.com/nlink/v416/n6876/abs/416036a_fs.html
News item at BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1858000/1858574.stm
18 February, 2002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/sci_tech/2002/boston_2002/newsid_1828000/1828224.stm
Sensational fossil discoveries were unveiled
on Monday, including the most primitive wishbone yet found in a dinosaur...The
wishbone, or furcula, is significant because it informs the debate on
whether birds evolved from dinosaurs; until recently the V-shaped bone
was thought to be a unique feature in birds.
The fossil furcula shown off by Dr
Sereno was part of the skeleton of an 11-metre-long predator known as
a spinosaur. Although the 110-million-year-old wishbone is not the oldest
known to science, the creature from which it came had a very deep lineage.
...
February 18. 2002
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-02/fm-nsc021102.php
New species clarifies bird-dinosaur link
CHICAGO – The discovery and analysis of an early carnivorous dinosaur,
Sinovenator changii, are clarifying the evolutionary relationship between
dinosaurs and birds, according to a paper to be published in Nature
Feb. 14, 2002.
The small, relatively complete fossil was found in the rich Yixian
Formation of western Liaoning in China, where scientists have recently
discovered many groundbreaking fossils, including feathered dinosaurs.
“This new dinosaur, which was probably feathered, is closely related
to and almost the same age as the oldest known bird, Archaeopteryx,”
says Peter Makovicky, PhD, assistant curator of dinosaurs at The Field
Museum and co-author of the paper. “It demonstrates that major structural
modifications toward birds occurred much earlier in the evolutionary
process than previously thought.
...The fossil is more than 130 million years old and sheds light on
dinosaurs during the transition from the Jurassic period to the Cretaceous
period. Sinovenator changii (sigh-no-ven-ay-tor chang-eye) is a troodontid
(tro-don-tid), a type of theropod (tare-a-pod). Although many theropods,
such as Tyrannosaurus, are large animals, theropods close to the ancestry
of birds show an evolutionary trend toward small body size. ...
Abstract
of Nature article
BBC News Item: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2132152.stm
The size of a large crow, the beast lived sometime between 140 and
125 million years ago. It has a gut full of seeds - the first direct
evidence of seed eating in a bird:
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020722/020722-5.html
New theory on the origin of flight
A new theory of how dinosaurs learned to fly has emerged.
According to a US scientist, flight may have evolved in two-legged dinosaurs
that flapped their feathered fore-limbs to climb slopes.
News at BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2664541.stm
Original article in Science-.
04-10-14
Fossil dinosaur slept like a bird
The dinosaur, named Mei long, or 'soundly sleeping
dragon', has lain undisturbed for almost 140 million years. But its
sleeping posture is strikingly similar to that of modern birds, showing
that this position might have evolved before they did.
M. long seems to have died with its hindlimbs folded
underneath it and its head tucked under one forelimb, just as birds
roost with their head under their wing.
more at NSU (you
need to register)
05-01-21
Ducks may have been paddling about in primeval swamps when T.
rex was king of the dinosaurs... Fossil remains of a bird that
lived 70 million years ago appear to belong to a relative of modern
ducks and geese.
BBC
News
|
However, 
