Flying Dinosaurs

     Early stages of flying reptiles: Starting 350 million years ago, reptiles have been a big part of earth’s eco system. From the early stages of the Carboniferous Period when reptiles came into existence until today, the evolution of flying reptiles in to birds has been one of a great importance. The early reptiles ruled the world because they were to most aggressive animal around. Once the dinosaurs came into the picture, smaller reptiles became the hunted rather than the hunters. In order to escape the dangers of the ground, reptiles ‘grew’ wing-like skin beneath their front arms. This was to help aid in the escape of bigger animals by helping the small reptiles glide above the rest. The early reptiles shared many similarities with amphibians of the time such as turtles. The main similarity was the shape of the skull and vertebrae. Once the skinwings started to form, they resembled the modern day birds. The flying reptiles then started to grow wings with feathers to make flight easier and more efficient. In today’s day and age, we see resemblance of the early reptiles in lizards, turtles, and birds.
     One way to see the changes of flying reptiles is to look into their past. The Archaeopteryx, known as one of the first birds, had short feathers all over it’s body and long, split feathers on it’s tail. Even the legs were covered in short feathers, just like to today’s birds of prey. Mark Norell, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History says, "It probably didn't fly like a bird at all—maybe like a turkey if it really tried,”. As these feathers on the Archaeopteryx may have not really been meant for flying, they were most likely there to attract mates or to regulate body temperature, but there isn’t one reason to say why feathers evolved. The wings obviously evolved a lot over time making it easy for the modern day birds to fly. The Archaeopteryx’s feathers, wings, furcula (wishbone), and reduced amount of fingers are characteristics of birds today.
     The modern day birds have evolved from the flying dinosaurs of the jurassic period slowly over time. The evidence that supports this comes from the shape and structure of the dinosaurs from the bone structure from fossils. Also, the dinosaurs laid eggs instead of live-birth like the modern day birds do. Yet another source of evidence comes from the fossils, showing the similar behavior and poses between birds and the extinct dinosaurs. Most of the evidence comes from the tissue from the dinosaurs and birds. Without the fossils of these extinct dinosaurs, we would not be able to collect the evidence we have. As said above, one of the oldest flying dinosaurs was the Archaeopteryx along with the Hesperornis and the Ichthyornis. Not all of the birds in our history lived in the Mesozoic period but they also lived in the Cretaceous period.

Citations:

Birds: The Late Evolution of Dinosaurs. (n.d.). Retrieved from Natural History
Museum website: http://www.nhm.org/site/research-collections/
dinosaur-institute/dinosaurs/birds-late-evolution-dinosaurs
http://www.nhm.org/site/research-collections/dinosaur-institute/dinosaurs/birds-late-evolution-dinosaurs

Archaeopteryx : An Early Bird. (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2014, from
University of California Museum of Paleontology website:
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/birds/archaeopteryx.html
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/birds/archaeopteryx.html

Dinosaur-Era Fossil Shows Birds' feathers Evolved before flight. (n.d.).
Retrieved from National Geographic website: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/ 140702-archaeopteryx-fossil-feathers-dinosaurs-science/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140702-archaeopteryx-fossil-feathers-dinosaurs-science/

Surtees, M. (n.d.). Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs? Retrieved from
http://www.truthinscience.org.uk/tis2/index.php/
evidence-for-evolution-mainmenu-65/231-dino-birds.html
 http://www.truthinscience.org.uk/tis2/index.php/evidence-for-evolution-mainmenu-65/231-dino-birds.html

Evolution: Change:Deep Time. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2014, from PBS.org
website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/