Did Dinosaurs really evolve into Birds?

Answer 1

The current thinking is, yes.

Oh, and according to a National Geographic program I watched on TV last night, whales and hippos evolved from the same common ancestor. Cool, huh?

Answer 2

That one guy said they evolved from pterosaurs? Thats not the case anymore than bats evolved from birds. Someone else said they weren't related to any of the 'big' dinosaurs as if size is a genetic grouping.

The branch Archosauria which included dinosaurs as big as T-rex is the one that survives today as our familiar feathered friends. In fact if you watch Jurassic park 3, they showed the velociraptors as having feathers - this was due to findings in China. In fact even Tyrannosaurus Rex had pin feathers on its body. The evolution of the modern bird is an interesting story. They used to have jaws and teeth like most vertebrates but beaks are more lightweight and suitable for flying creatures.

Answer 3

The evidence is building all the time, I think you can safely say that they did. I don't recall the velociraptors having feathers in Jurassic Park 3 (they had coloured skin) but geologists have very recently determined that the real velociraptor was indeed covered in feathers like a bird. The fact that no other order of animal alive today, apart from birds, has evolved feathers is compelling evidence on its own to suggest the origin of birds.

Answer 4

Well, if you look at the skeleton of Archaeopteryx, a very early bird, it has the skeleton of a small running meat-eating dinosaur. In fact, one Archaeopteryx fossil was mistaken for a small running meat-eating dinosaur--until someone noticed the feathers. Yes, despte the teeth, the small breastbone and collarbone, the long bony tail, it had feathers. And what's more, the feathers were asymmetric, like modern bird feathers for flight. Small running meat-eating dinosaurs (coelurosaurs) had feet identical to those of birds; they had a wrist and hand very similar to those of birds (birds have fused those bones); the leg scales were reptilian on both; and some of them had feathers, even if they didn't fly.

The general consensus of fossil experts is that birds are descended from dinosaurs.

Answer 5

No one knows for sure as there is no direct evidence, as in a steady, clear progression of fossils, leading from a certain dinosaur species into a specific bird species or class. There are enough similarites in bone structures to indicate that they may have evolved, at least a few species, into birds. However, for the large species of dinosaurs, meaning the most well-known species, there is more evidence that these were wiped out by a major extinction event.

Answer 6

Yes, archaeopteryxs and pterosaurs did evolve into birds. Each and everything except the breast bone, wingspan size etc. matches with the birds of today. In fact, from symmetrical wingspan, limbs, bone structure all showed that the dinosaurs evolved into birds.