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The basal bird Archaeopteryx, from the Jurassic, is well known as one of the first "missing links" to be found in support of evolution in the late 19th century. Though it is not considered a direct ancestor of modern birds, it gives a fair representation of how flight evolved and how the very first bird might have looked.
A turning point came in the early twentieth century with the writings of Gerhard Heilmann of Denmark.An artist by trade, Heilmann had a scholarly interest in birds and from 1913 to 1916, expanding on earlier work by Othenio Abel, [12] published the results of his research in several parts, dealing with the anatomy, embryology, behavior, paleontology, and evolution of birds. [13]
Confuciusornis sanctus, a Cretaceous bird from China that lived 125 million years ago, is the oldest known bird to have a beak. [ 35 ] Over 40% of key traits found in modern birds evolved during the 60 million year transition from the earliest bird-line archosaurs to the first maniraptoromorphs , i.e. the first dinosaurs closer to living birds ...
Pelagornis sandersi appears in the fossil record, the largest flying bird that ever lived. 25 Ma First deer. 24 Ma First pinnipeds. 23 Ma Earliest ostriches, trees representative of most major groups of oaks have appeared by now. [102] 20 Ma First giraffes, hyenas, and giant anteaters, increase in bird diversity. 17 Ma
Each of the roughly 11,000 species of birds on Earth today is classified into one of two groups, based on the arrangement of their palate bones. Fossil ‘overturns more than a century of ...
This would have reduced stall speed by up to 6% and turning radius by up to 12%. [66] The feathers of Archaeopteryx were asymmetrical. This has been interpreted as evidence that it was a flyer, because flightless birds tend to have symmetrical feathers. Some scientists, including Thomson and Speakman, have questioned this.
The most primitive "birds", usually still possessing a long bony tail with generally unfused vertebrae. Not all of these may be on the line of bird ancestors; whether they are not closer to other theropods groups than to the Avialae remains to be thoroughly tested (see Xiaotingia).
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