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How Did Birds Evolve? From Dinosaurs to Modern Birds

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How did birds evolve? From their dinosaur ancestors to the birds alive today.

Chapters

  1. Birds are living dinosaurs
  2. Feathers came first
  3. A bird's body, built on the ground
  4. Taking to the air
  5. The first age of birds
  6. The asteroid and the survivors
  7. Birds today

Sources (29)

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  2. Thomas Henry Huxley. On the animals which are most nearly intermediate between birds and reptiles. 1868.Cited for Huxley
  3. Ji Qiang and Ji Shu'an. On the discovery of the earliest fossil bird in China (Sinosauropteryx gen. nov.) and the origin of birds. 1996.Cited for Sinosauropteryx
  4. Xu Xing, Wang Kebai, Zhang Ke, Ma Qingyu, Xing Lida, Corwin Sullivan, Hu Dongyu, Cheng Shuqing and Wang Shuo. A gigantic feathered dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of China. 2012.Cited for Yutyrannus
  5. Pascal Godefroit, Sofia M. Sinitsa, Danielle Dhouailly, Yuri L. Bolotsky, Alexander V. Sizov, Maria E. McNamara, Michael J. Benton and Paul Spagna. A Jurassic ornithischian dinosaur from Siberia with both feathers and scales. 2014.Cited for Filaments
  6. Richard O. Prum. Development and evolutionary origin of feathers. 1999.Cited for Feather stages
  7. Li Quanguo, Gao Ke-Qin, Jakob Vinther, Matthew D. Shawkey, Julia A. Clarke, Liliana D'Alba, Meng Qingjin, Derek E. G. Briggs and Richard O. Prum. Plumage color patterns of an extinct dinosaur. 2010.Cited for Colours
  8. Sterling J. Nesbitt, Alan H. Turner, Michael Spaulding, Jack L. Conrad and Mark A. Norell. The theropod furcula. 2009.Cited for Wishbones
  9. Patrick M. O'Connor and Leon P. A. M. Claessens. Basic avian pulmonary design and flow-through ventilation in non-avian theropod dinosaurs. 2005.Cited for Air sacs
  10. Mark A. Norell, James M. Clark, Luis M. Chiappe and Demberelyin Dashzeveg. A nesting dinosaur. 1995.Cited for Citipati
  11. David J. Varricchio, Jason R. Moore, Gregory M. Erickson, Mark A. Norell, Frankie D. Jackson and John J. Borkowski. Avian paternal care had dinosaur origin. 2008.Cited for Brooding
  12. Xu Xing and Mark A. Norell. A new troodontid dinosaur from China with avian-like sleeping posture. 2004.Cited for Mei long
  13. Michael S. Y. Lee, Andrea Cau, Darren Naish and Gareth J. Dyke. Sustained miniaturization and anatomical innovation in the dinosaurian ancestors of birds. 2014.Cited for Shrinking
  14. Xu Xing, Zhou Zhonghe, Wang Xiaolin, Kuang Xuewen, Zhang Fucheng and Du Xiangke. Four-winged dinosaurs from China. 2003.Cited for Microraptor
  15. Xu Xing, Zheng Xiaoting, Corwin Sullivan, Wang Xiaoli, Xing Lida, Wang Yan, Zhang Xiaomei, Jingmai K. O'Connor, Zhang Fucheng and Pan Yanhong. A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran theropod with preserved evidence of membranous wings. 2015.Cited for Yi qi
  16. Rui Pei, Michael Pittman, Pablo A. Goloboff, T. Alexander Dececchi, Michael B. Habib, Thomas G. Kaye, Hans C. E. Larsson, Mark A. Norell, Stephen L. Brusatte and Xu Xing. Potential for powered flight neared by most close avialan relatives, but few crossed its thresholds. 2020.Cited for Flight
  17. Kenneth P. Dial. Wing-assisted incline running and the evolution of flight. 2003.Cited for Chukars
  18. Luis M. Chiappe, Ji Shu-An, Ji Qiang and Mark A. Norell. Anatomy and systematics of the Confuciusornithidae (Theropoda: Aves) from the Late Mesozoic of northeastern China. 1999.Cited for Confuciusornis
  19. Luis M. Chiappe and Cyril A. Walker. Skeletal morphology and systematics of the Cretaceous Euenantiornithes. 2002.Cited for Enantiornithines
  20. Daniel J. Field, Michael Hanson, David Burnham, Laura E. Wilson, Kristopher Super, Dana Ehret, Jun A. Ebersole and Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar. Complete Ichthyornis skull illuminates mosaic assembly of the avian head. 2018.Cited for Ichthyornis
  21. The Chicxulub asteroid impact and mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. 2010.Cited for Impact
  22. Anthony D. Barnosky, Nicholas Matzke, Susumu Tomiya, Guinevere O. U. Wogan, Brian Swartz, Tiago B. Quental, Charles Marshall, Jenny L. McGuire, Emily L. Lindsey, Kaitlin C. Maguire, Ben Mersey and Elizabeth A. Ferrer. Has the Earth's sixth mass extinction already arrived?. 2011.Cited for Species lost
  23. Nicholas R. Longrich, Tim Tokaryk and Daniel J. Field. Mass extinction of birds at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary. 2011.Cited for Extinctions
  24. Daniel J. Field, Antoine Bercovici, Jacob S. Berv, Regan Dunn, David E. Fastovsky, Tyler R. Lyson, Vivi Vajda and Jacques A. Gauthier. Early evolution of modern birds structured by global forest collapse at the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. 2018.Cited for Survivors
  25. Derek W. Larson, Caleb M. Brown and David C. Evans. Dental disparity and ecological stability in bird-like dinosaurs prior to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. 2016.Cited for Beaks
  26. Daniel J. Field, Juan Benito, Albert Chen, John W. M. Jagt and Daniel T. Ksepka. Late Cretaceous neornithine from Europe illuminates the origins of crown birds. 2020.Cited for Asteriornis
  27. Frank Gill, David Donsker and Pamela Rasmussen. IOC World Bird List, version 14.1. 2024.Cited for Species
  28. Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes. 2024.Cited for Neoaves
  29. Kerryn E. Slack, Craig M. Jones, Tatsuro Ando, G. L. Harrison, R. Ewan Fordyce, Ulfur Arnason and David Penny. Early penguin fossils, plus mitochondrial genomes, calibrate avian evolution. 2006.Cited for Penguins

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