Hey there, curious minds! Have you ever thought about what you’re really eating during holiday dinners? Believe it or not, when you dig into that delicious turkey or chicken, you’re actually eating a dinosaur! Yes, birds are dinosaurs, and today we’re going to explore why that is.
Let’s start with a fun fact: birds are closely related to dinosaurs. To understand this, scientists look at the anatomy of animals to find shared characteristics, known as synapomorphies. These are traits that different groups of organisms have because they share a common ancestor. For example, humans and chimpanzees both have opposable thumbs.
Birds have many features that link them to a specific group of dinosaurs called Saurischian dinosaurs. One of the most interesting clues is found in their “hands.”
When you eat a chicken wing, you’re actually holding a part of the chicken’s hand! Birds have three fingers, and the second finger is the longest, just like in Saurischian dinosaurs. This is one of the ways we know birds belong to this group.
But not all Saurischian dinosaurs are birds. Birds are part of a subgroup called Theropod dinosaurs. A key feature of Theropods is the wishbone, or “furcula,” which is the bird’s collarbone. This bone helps support flight muscles and is found in both birds and Theropod dinosaurs like the Allosaurus.
Birds have hollow bones, which make them lightweight and help them fly. Interestingly, Theropod dinosaurs also had hollow bones, which likely helped them be agile hunters. This shows how evolution can repurpose traits for different uses over time.
As we explore further, we find that birds are part of a group called Tetanurans, which have three fingers. Some dinosaurs, like the T. rex, even lost a finger over time, ending up with just two!
Birds are specifically known as Avian Maniraptoran Tetanuran Theropod Dinosaurs. One of the defining features of this group is their backward-facing pelvis. Modern birds, or Aves, are part of a larger group called Avialae. Unlike their dinosaur ancestors, birds have a short tail bone called a pygostyle, which is all that’s left of their long dinosaur tails.
These anatomical features, along with others like feathers and unique feet, help scientists place birds firmly in the dinosaur family tree. So next time you sit down for a holiday meal, remember that you’re sharing your table with a piece of ancient history!
If you’re interested in learning more about what dinosaurs looked like or how they sounded, there are plenty of resources to explore. And don’t forget, every holiday dinner can end with the fun tradition of breaking the wishbone. Who knows, maybe you’ll wish for more exciting discoveries about our feathered dinosaur friends!
Using art supplies or a digital tool, create a family tree that shows the evolutionary path from Saurischian dinosaurs to modern birds. Highlight key features like the wishbone and hollow bones. This will help you visualize how birds are related to dinosaurs.
With supervision, dissect a chicken wing to identify the “hand” structure. Compare it to diagrams of dinosaur hands to see the similarities. This hands-on activity will help you understand the anatomical connections between birds and dinosaurs.
In groups, create a short skit or role-play that demonstrates the evolutionary journey from Theropod dinosaurs to modern birds. Use props or costumes to represent different features like feathers or hollow bones. This will make learning about evolution fun and interactive.
Research what feathered dinosaurs might have looked like and create an art piece depicting one. Use your imagination to add colors and patterns. This activity will help you appreciate the diversity and appearance of ancient dinosaurs.
Investigate the tradition of breaking the wishbone and its historical significance. Write a short essay or create a presentation on how this tradition connects to the evolutionary history of birds. This will deepen your understanding of cultural practices linked to science.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hey smart people, Joe here. This holiday season, I bet many of you are going to be sitting down with family and friends to celebrate. And I bet a lot of you are going to be eating some nice delicious… dinosaur! Birds are dinosaurs! But why is that? That’s what we’re going to talk about today.
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Today I’m here with my friends Anna Rothschild, who makes the Science Magic Show Hooray! at The Washington Post, and… fun fact, she’s 25% mashed potatoes. It’s true! I am. And Dr. Shae Montanari, who is not only a pumpkin beer aficionado but is a dinosaur expert extraordinaire. Really happy to be here, Joe.
So we have all heard that birds are dinosaurs, but what exactly does that really mean? The way that we can tell that anything is related to something else is by looking at their anatomy and what kind of characteristics they share. These are called synapomorphies, traits shared by two or more groups of organisms, derived from a common ancestor. Like how humans and chimps both have opposable thumbs.
So, there are different kinds of dinosaurs, and we can look at the characteristics of birds to find out exactly what kind of dinosaurs they are. There are actually lots of clues preserved in their bones that show that they are very closely related, and that birds are actually dinosaurs. And we’re going to find those today, with this!
So, we couldn’t get a turkey; it’s not quite Thanksgiving yet. But everything we show you, we promise you can do at your holiday table with the people you’re celebrating with, and explain to them the science of why you’re eating a dinosaur.
VO: In the 1860s, scientists unearthed the most famous feathered dinosaur fossil: Archaeopteryx. Early defenders of evolution like Thomas Henry Huxley began to suggest that these extinct reptiles were so similar to birds that they must be related. But the idea didn’t really catch on until the 1970s, when new fossils filled in more empty branches on the dinosaur family tree…
VO: About 250 million years ago, a group called Archosaurs split into Crocodilian reptiles and Dinosaurs. And a lot of evolution has happened since that split.
Ok, so there are two groups of dinosaurs: the Ornithischian and the Saurischian dinosaurs. And that split happened about 240 million years ago. The way we know that birds belong to the Saurischian group is mainly because of their hands.
Wait, hands? A: Birds don’t have hands! S: Birds actually DO have hands; they just don’t really look like hands anymore. If you’ve ever eaten a chicken wing or held on to a chicken wing, you’ve been shaking hands with a chicken!
Can we dig into this chicken and check it out? I think it’s time to check it out. Let’s go find a chicken hand. A: So these are like the original chicken fingers!
J: I usually dissect these with my teeth; you’re doing it completely differently. So that little skinny part of the wing at the end, that you don’t typically eat… This little nubbin? That little nubbin is the finger of the chicken that’s gotten super reduced.
I accidentally broke off the very tip of the bird finger, but here is like the second digit. The very, very tip of the finger. It’s a tiny bird finger. Joe, I’m going to let you hold that as well! The length of the three bird fingers inside a wing narrows down which group of dinosaurs birds descended from. The second finger is longest in birds and in Saurischian dinosaurs. That’s a big way we know that birds belong to the Saurischian group as opposed to the Ornithischian group.
So birds are Saurischian dinosaurs, but are all Saurischian dinosaurs birds? S: No, they are not. That’s a great question. So even within Saurischian dinosaurs, as we’re walking up this dinosaur family tree, there’s another group that branches off, and we can tell which one birds are a part of, and it’s the Theropod dinosaurs.
S: And the one bone that is the biggest clue of Theropod dinosaurs is something that you’ve probably played a little game with after your Thanksgiving dinner: The wishbone! Right here. Cooool!
I think it’s time to dissect a wishbone. What does the wishbone do? Does it serve a purpose for flight or for something else? It helps birds get their wishes! Oh right, of course!
Besides helping all their dreams come true, the furcula is actually support for the flight muscles. A wishbone, or “furcula,” is actually a bird’s collarbone, but instead of two separate collarbones like we have, theirs is fused into one. Wishbones have only been found in birds and Theropod dinosaurs, like Allosaurus, and they draw a clear line from those extinct creatures to our modern feathered friends.
J: Ok, let’s get this wishbone out in one piece. This is nerve-wracking. I got it! S: You did it! A: Bravo!
So all birds will have a form of this, and all dinosaurs in this part of the tree also had something like this? S: We’ve found a furcula in most Theropod dinosaurs’ fossils that we’ve found around the world.
J: We’ll save this for later. VO: Fossil wishbones are one of the most important pieces of evidence we have that birds descended from Theropod dinosaurs.
S: So actually one of the similarities between birds and theropods, and how we know that birds are theropod dinosaurs, is inside their bones. S: This is another one of those tibiotarsus bones… J: Drumstick bones!
S: Drumstick bones, and I have channeled all of my rage and broken this one in half, and look inside, and you can see that the walls of the bone are very thin and basically hollow. So when people say that birds have hollow bones, that’s what they mean. There’s very little spongy bone on the inside, and there’s a very thin wall, which makes it easier for them to fly.
J: Theropod dinosaurs had these hollow bones too. So did that help them be more agile, you know, go in for more Jurassic Park type kills? S: Right, that’s a great question. Because theropods had a lot of the characteristics that modern birds do, but they didn’t fly. So these characteristics must have been helpful for them to do other things. And hunting is definitely one of them.
J: That’s the cool thing about evolution, is that something that could have helped theropods that didn’t fly in one way, birds could have taken advantage of that in a completely different way as lightweight for flight, right? S: Exactly!
S: So even within Theropods, as we’re going down the family tree, there are more branches, and the way we can tell which one birds fall in is how many fingers they have. VO: Around 200 million years ago, Theropods split. One branch kept four or even five fingers, but a branch called Tetanurae all descended from an ancestor with just three fingers. Our bird? Three fingers! Later, some Tetanurans, like T. rex, even lost an additional finger, going from three to two!
Poor T. rex. J: So our chicken, we’ve got one, two, three fingers.
S: Ok, so to get to the next identifying characteristic of this bird, we’re really gonna have to dig in there. J: I’m just ripping parts off here. It’s so… it’s kinda fun actually. It’s like The Brain Scoop crossed with a cooking show right now.
A: For sure. S: Oh man. A: I mean honestly, this entire scene is so macabre. S: It’s so bad. J: It’s awesome. The darkest Thanksgiving!
J: You can do any of this with a turkey; it’s just going to be a lot messier. Which in my book, makes it more fun.
A: So we know that birds are Tetanurans, but can we get even more specific? S: We can get even more specific. There are a few more branches to go before we get to what we call “crown birds” or living birds. And birds are a specific kind of theropod called Maniraptoran theropods.
So Maniraptora, one of the characteristics of this group is that the hips point backwards. Specifically, the rearward-tilted bone is a part of the pelvis called the pubis. J: So we’ve got our backward-facing pelvis for the maniraptorans. Is there another branch beyond this?
S: Yeah, there are still more branches to go, but the one we’re going to end on is Avialae. So Aves is part of Avialae. Aves is modern birds. So a big difference between the kinds of theropod dinosaurs that you’re probably envisioning in your head, like Velociraptor, and birds, is a tail.
So birds actually do not have tails. This little bit at the end represents what’s left of the dinosaur tail, called a pygostyle. So the pygostyle is the last remnants of a long fluffy feathered theropod tail, and narrows down the bird/dinosaur family tree even further.
So. Birds are Avian Maniraptoran Tetanuran Theropod Dinosaurs. And these anatomical features are just a few of the similarities that scientists have used to place birds in the dinosaur family tree. There’s even more, from the shape of their necks to their unique feet to yes, even feathers.
J: Ok, my holiday dinner is never gonna be the same. It’s gonna be way more awesome, and a little grosser. But that’s ok. S: So if you want to do this at home, you definitely can, and if you want to learn more, there are links in the description.
J: You know we’ve taken a deep dive inside of a dinosaur to see what makes them what they are, but what were they like on the outside? What did they act like? A: That is an excellent question! And if you want to learn more about what colors dinosaurs were, or even what sounds they made, head on over to my channel where Joe and I explore those questions.
J: Ok, like every holiday dinner, this one has to end with the traditional breaking of the wishbone. Grab a side, guys. 3-2-1… A: What did you wish for? S: I wished for everyone to stay curious!
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This version maintains the essence of the conversation while removing any informal or potentially inappropriate language.
Birds – Warm-blooded vertebrates with feathers, wings, and beaks, most of which are capable of flight. – Scientists study birds to understand how their unique adaptations help them survive in different environments.
Dinosaurs – A group of reptiles that lived millions of years ago, some of which were the ancestors of modern birds. – Fossils of dinosaurs provide important clues about life on Earth long before humans existed.
Evolution – The process by which different kinds of living organisms develop and diversify from earlier forms over generations. – The evolution of species is a key concept in understanding how life on Earth has changed over time.
Theropods – A group of bipedal dinosaurs that includes both carnivorous and herbivorous species, some of which are ancestors of birds. – Theropods like the Tyrannosaurus rex are among the most well-known dinosaurs.
Anatomy – The study of the structure of living organisms, including their systems, organs, and tissues. – By examining the anatomy of birds, scientists can learn how their bodies are adapted for flight.
Features – Distinctive attributes or aspects of an organism that help define its appearance or function. – The features of a bird, such as its beak shape and wing size, can tell us a lot about its lifestyle and diet.
Traits – Characteristics or qualities that are inherited from an organism’s parents. – Traits like feather color and song patterns are often passed down from parent birds to their offspring.
Ancestors – Organisms from which others have descended, often referring to earlier forms in evolutionary history. – Birds are believed to have evolved from dinosaur ancestors millions of years ago.
Feathers – Light, flexible structures that cover the bodies of birds, aiding in flight, insulation, and display. – Feathers are a key adaptation that allows birds to fly and stay warm.
History – The study of past events, particularly in relation to the development of life on Earth. – The history of life on Earth includes the rise and fall of dinosaurs and the emergence of birds.
