Are Birds living Dinosaurs?

Question

BBC televison's Horizon programme ran a documentary on Dinosaurs last night. Their conclusion was that Birds are the natrual ancestors to Dinosaurs. With 165 Million years of evolution would you expect somethign different?

Answer 1

Scientists disagree about many aspects of the evolution of birds. Many paleontologists (scientists who study fossils to learn about prehistoric life) believe that birds evolved from small, predatory dinosaurs called theropods. These scientists say that many skeletal features of birds, such as light, hollow bones and a furculum, were present in theropod dinosaurs prior to the evolution of birds. Others, however, think that birds evolved from an earlier type of reptile called thecodonts—a group that ultimately gave rise to dinosaurs, crocodiles, and the flying reptiles known as pterosaurs. These scientists assert that similarities between birds and theropod dinosaurs are due to a phenomenon called convergent evolution—the evolution of similar traits among groups of organisms that are not necessarily related.
Scientists also disagree about how flight evolved. Some scientists believe that flight first occurred when the ancestors of birds climbed trees and glided down from branches. Others theorize that bird flight began from the ground up, when dinosaurs or reptiles ran along the ground and leaped into the air to catch insects or to avoid predators. Continued discovery and analysis of fossils will help clarify the origins of birds.
Despite uncertainties about bird evolution, scientists do know that numerous types of birds lived during the Cretaceous Period, which dates to about 138 million to 65 million years ago. Among these birds were Ichthyornis victor, which resembled a gull and had vertebrae similar to those of a fish, and Hesperonis regalis, which was nearly wingless and had vertebrae like those of today’s birds. Most birds of the Cretaceous Period are thought to have died out in the mass extinctions—deaths of large numbers of animal species—that took place at the end of the Cretaceous Period.
The Tertiary Period directly following the Cretaceous witnessed an explosive evolution of birds. One bird that lived during the Tertiary Period was Diatryma, which stood 1.8 to 2.4 m (about 6 to 8 ft) tall and had massive legs, a huge bill, and very small, underdeveloped wings. Most modern families of birds can be traced back in the fossil record to the early or mid-Eocene Epoch—a stage within the Tertiary Period that occurred about 50 million years ago. Perching birds, called passerines, experienced a tremendous growth in species diversity in the latter part of the Tertiary; today this group is the most diverse order of birds.
During the Pleistocene Epoch, from 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago, also known as the Ice Age, glacier ice spread over more than one-fourth of the land surfaces of the earth. These glaciers isolated many groups of birds from other groups with which they had previously interbred. Scientists have long assumed that the resulting isolated breeding groups evolved into the species of birds that exist today. This assumption has been modified as a result of studies involving bird DNA within cellular components called mitochondria. Pairs of species that only recently diverged from a shared ancestry are expected to have more similar mitochondrial DNA than are pairs that diverged in the more distant past. Because mutations in mitochondrial DNA are thought to occur at a fixed rate, some scientists believe that this DNA can be interpreted as a molecular clock that reveals the approximate amount of time that has elapsed since two species diverged from one another. Studies of North American songbirds based on this approach suggest that only the earliest glaciers of the Pleistocene are likely to have played a role in shaping bird species.
The evolution of birds has not ended with the birds that we know today. Some bird species are dying out. In addition, the process of speciation—evolutionary changes that result in new species—continues all the time.

Answer 2

because essentially, they are still very dinosaur-like in their build. If you look at the skeleton of a bird, you'll see what I mean. Plus, they have dinosaur features like the feet. There are some examples of birds that look a lot like dinosaurs, e.g. the Cassowary.

Answer 3

i wouldnt expect much different, dinos have similar bone structures as birds have now a days. some can be pretty agressive (the birds i mean) and face it. if birds were the size that dinos were....well the phenomena wouldnt be that good. the only other thought i would of had would be lizards and reptiles but lizards and reptiles were around during the time of the dinos so... lizards are a completley different species that dinos were, they survived and i suppose you could say that lizards are the dinos of 2day but i wouldnt agree with that, 2day's lizards are much more lazy and eat much different things then dinos used to. birds have pretty much almost the same character traits as some dinos and they eat some similar things that dinos used to eat...and if they ever found dino DNA i bet anything that it would resemble more birds than lizards... wow that was alot of typing, i sure hope my answer is good enuf for best answer

Answer 4

That seems to be the general consensus among Naturalists and Paleontologists. Millions of years of evolution and they end up shitting on my car! Excuse me, have to go put some seed out for the dinosaurs in my garden!
Just a small correction to your statement. They died out 65 mya, and were in fact around for over 400 million years before that. And by 'something different' you mean what?
Like flying Tricerotops?

Answer 5

It has already been long-known that birds and mammals branched off from reptiles. Exactly which reptiles, though, was less known until recently. Evidence now show that birds came from a type of reptile that was in the dinosaur category. Mammals, however, came from lizard-like reptiles instead.

Answer 6

the fossil record suggests that birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs based on bone structure mainly in the legs, and recent discoveries have found that some dinosaurs actually Had feathers. and they were used for assistance in jump/leaping to catch their prey. they found a carnivorous dinosaur fossil that had two large feathers attached to each appendage of the "upper arms." their throat and neck bones also suggest they are direct descendants of dinosaurs, and that's what the movie "jurrassic park" used to mimick their calls.

Answer 7

All modern birds are thought to have evolved from Archaeopteryx lithographica, which evolved from Theropod dinosaurs. As such, from a phylogenetic perspective, all birds are dinosaurs, and, by extension, all birds are reptiles.

Answer 8

What exactly would you expect different? The evidence is pretty good that birds are the descendents of dinosaurs.

Answer 9

depends on they type of dinosaurs- they are a living descendant of one type of dinosaur- as we were. The big ones were only distantly related.
The closest living relative to a bird is the crocodile. Same type of teeth and early beak formation (looking at Archeopteryx among others).
there is a lot of specialization in birds- they changed and diversified a lot from reptiles, such as in reducing or eliminating teeth, turning scales into feathers, hollowing bones, different type of beaks, body sizes, etc.

Answer 10

well yes in a way they are, they are just evolved spieces for this generation, however they where at one time because they and aligators, and turtles and other repiles have survived. so yes they are pretty much dinosuars, but in this generation, we'll just say Animals.