Where the Birds Came From?

About 160-million years ago, the creature called Archaeopteryx had skeleton characteristics identical to small dinosaurs that lived during that same time. This creature also had toothed jaw and feathers that allowed the Archaeopteryx to move from place to place ‘transporting’ through branches. Some scientists believed that Archaeopteryx is the evolutionary link between dinosaurs and what today we identify as birds. Also, birds’ beaks, legs, and the ability to lay eggs indicates a strong relationship between birds and reptiles. New discoveries are helping to better understand how birds evolved and how they are related to each other, from the tiny hummingbird to the towering ostrich.

In 2005 bones discovered from Antarctica’ fossil gave new and very exciting facts: the skeleton of Vegavis dated to around sixty-seven million years ago bears traits that exist only in a modern-day duck. The new discoveries combined with more advanced methods of genetic tests suggest that the avian family tree got their start just before the asteroid strike. (Jaggard, 2018) An asteroid stroke sixty-six millions years ago. It devastated the dinosaurs, but scientists today have proof and evidence that there were a few survivors that evolved many millions of years of the mass extinction and begot today’s birds.