orion
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Funny, while I was reading the above article last night I was wondering why the ancestors to birds survived the K-T extinction, but dinosaurs didn't.
Then this morning the following article on that very subject show up in Science Daily.
Primitive Birds Shared Dinosaurs' Fate
Longrich believes a small fraction of the Cretaceous bird species survived the impact, giving rise to today's birds. The birds he examined showed much more diversity than had yet been seen in birds from the late Cretaceous, ranging in size from that of a starling up to a small goose. Some had long beaks full of teeth.
Yet modern birds are very different from those that existed during the late Cretaceous, Longrich said. For instance, today's birds have developed a much wider range of specialized features and behaviors, from penguins to hummingbirds to flamingoes, while the primitive birds would have occupied a narrower range of ecological niches.
"The basic bird design was in place, but all of the specialized features developed after the mass extinction, when birds sort of re-evolved with all the diversity they display today," Longrich said. "It's similar to what happened with mammals after the age of the dinosaurs."
So the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago opened up new ecological niches for the evolution and radiation of bird species, just as it did for mammals.
Note the comment above - bird fossils showing 'birds with teeth'. Again, it all fits very nicely for ToE. But Creationism offers no explanation.
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Posts: 1431 | Posted: 06:31 AM on September 21, 2011 | IP
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Rukbat
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| Quote from orion at 01:31 AM on September 21, 2011 :Yet modern birds are very different from those that existed during the late Cretaceous, Longrich said. For instance, today's birds have developed a much wider range of specialized features and behaviors, from penguins to hummingbirds to flamingoes, while the primitive birds would have occupied a narrower range of ecological niches. |
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Another point to remember - most animals never fossilize, and most fossils don't get found. There might have been a much larger diversity just before the KT event. (It's difficult to not find a 10 foot long femur. Finding one the size a hummingbird carries is a lot more difficult.)
"The basic bird design was in place, but all of the specialized features developed after the mass extinction, when birds sort of re-evolved with all the diversity they display today," Longrich said. "It's similar to what happened with mammals after the age of the dinosaurs."
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Really? Theropoda (dinosaurs) includes Aves (birds), and there was quite a large diversity of Theropoda. It sounds like a bit of cherry picking to me.
| So the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago opened up new ecological niches for the evolution and radiation of bird species, just as it did for mammals. |
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The demise of the Theropods eliminated a lot of Theropod species (including avian species).
| Note the comment above - bird fossils showing 'birds with teeth'. Again, it all fits very nicely for ToE. But Creationism offers no explanation. |
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They do, but I just don't buy it. It's "God has his reasons". Sounds like the work of a deranged lunatic to me. Or evolution and the Drunkard's Walk.
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Posts: 5 | Posted: 10:01 PM on December 17, 2011 | IP
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Fencer27
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Quote from Rukbat at 10:01 PM on December 17, 2011 :
"The basic bird design was in place, but all of the specialized features developed after the mass extinction, when birds sort of re-evolved with all the diversity they display today," Longrich said. "It's similar to what happened with mammals after the age of the dinosaurs."
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Really? Theropoda (dinosaurs) includes Aves (birds), and there was quite a large diversity of Theropoda. It sounds like a bit of cherry picking to me. |
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Don't know how it is cherry picking. Only a sub-group of theropods, the maniraptors (and only a sub-group of them), evolved into birds, not all of them.
| So the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago opened up new ecological niches for the evolution and radiation of bird species, just as it did for mammals. |
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The demise of the Theropods eliminated a lot of Theropod species (including avian species). |
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Perhaps, but that elimination left potential niches open for what remained of aves. It's standard evolutionary theory.
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Posts: 550 | Posted: 01:53 AM on December 22, 2011 | IP
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Creationism vs Evolution Debates
