URBANBOGOR.COM – Everyone knows what birds are and almost everyone knows what dinosaurs are too.
However, not everyone knows that birds evolved from their dinosaur ancestors, about 160 million years ago.
In fact, birds and dinosaurs lived side by side for about 100 million years.
Birds are descendants of a group of dinosaurs nicknamed dromaeosaurs and are a family of feathered theropods and are still related to velociraptors.
However, when an asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago off the coast of Mexico, the fate of the dinosaurs came to a painful end.
But strangely enough, some bird species have survived and you may be wondering how they still survive today.
Acting as detectives, scientists specializing in bird evolution try to discover why birds did not go extinct.
They collect clues such as fossils and other evidence of life on Earth since ancient times.
Scientists currently have a theory as to why birds can survive, unfortunately there is no definitive answer yet.
Birds living today have no teeth, but they do have beaks of various shapes and sizes for eating and drinking.
However, some birds that lived during the dinosaur era apparently had teeth.
After an asteroid hit Earth, all toothed birds became extinct.
But those who were toothless managed to survive the mass extinction that occurred.
Some scientists argue that the lack of teeth is the reason these birds can survive.
Fossils of ancient toothless birds show that they could have consumed more plant foods, such as nuts, fruits and seeds.
This means that they are less dependent on animal food than toothed birds.
Some scientists consider this dietary difference a huge advantage after the asteroid impact wiped out other animals.
When an asteroid hits Earth, it immediately causes a tsunami and a large earthquake.
The heat wave resulting from the impact caused massive forest fires near the asteroid crash site.
In the following months, large quantities of dust covered the atmospheric layer that protects the Earth.
This blocks sunlight, thus reducing the availability of light for plant growth.
For plant-consuming dinosaurs, the amount of food was drastically reduced.
Many of them eventually went extinct, causing problems for the carnivorous dinosaurs.
Because so many species are dying, plants are also having trouble getting enough sunlight.
Food will be hard to find if you are a bird.
But if you can peck at the ground to find buried seeds or nuts to eat.
This could give them an advantage to survive as a species.***
2024-01-17 13:58:00
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