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Four distinct lineages of bird survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago, giving rise to ostriches and relatives (Palaeognathae), waterfowl (Anseriformes), ground-living fowl (Galliformes), and "modern birds" (Neoaves).
The ancestor of all living birds lived sometime in the Late Cretaceous, and in the 65 million years since the extinction of the rest of the dinosaurs, this ancestral lineage diversified into the major groups of birds alive today.
According to nearly all ornithologists, birds are not only the descendants of ancient dinosaurs, they are, in fact, dinosaurs themselves! Dinosaurs are a branch of reptiles that emerged during the middle of the Triassic Period (about 252 million to 201 million years ago) and thrived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods (201 million to 66 ...
Fossil records suggest that modern birds originated 60 million years ago, after the end of the Cretaceous period about 65 million years ago when dinosaurs died off. But molecular studies...
Birds are believed to have evolved from dinosaurs, specifically theropods, about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period. Over time, these early birds developed a number of unique adaptations that allowed them to become highly specialized for flight.
It may once have been the commonest bird that has ever lived on earth. There was a population of an estimated two billion birds in colonial days, when huge overflying flocks would darkened...
The massive meteor strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago may have sparked a rapid evolution of bird species over just a few million years. The few bird lineages that survived the extinction bottleneck gave rise to stunning diversity, resulting in the more than 10,000 species alive today.
This crow-sized creature with both bird and dinosaur traits lived during the Jurassic Period about 150 million years ago (MYA). That was a long time back, but the origin of birds was probably millions of years before then. It can be hard to decide, however, what was a bird and what wasn't.
Clearly by more than 100 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous, birds representing a wide range of flight adaptations and ecological specializations had evolved. Some flew on wings...
Birds evolved from dinosaurs, but how long did this evolutionary transition take? Twenty years ago, it was widely assumed that the first bird— Archaeopteryx , which lived in the Late Jurassic (see the photo)—evolved its feathers, wings, and ability to fly within just 10 million years or so.