Birds and Dinosaurs Transcript-422

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BirdNote®

Dinosaurs Glide (or Run) to Birds

This is BirdNote!
[Roar of a dinosaur and song of American Robin]
What is the connection, you might ask, between the blood-curdling roar of a Tyrannosaurus rex and the gentle song of a robin? A recent bonanza of fossils has intensified debate over how contemporary birds are linked to extinct dinosaurs. Today, most experts see the lineage of modern birds issuing directly from dinosaurs: that today’s birds are the surviving heirs of the dinosaurs. This is a radical departure from the long-held view that both birds and dinosaurs sprang from much earlier reptilian ancestors.
[Roar of dinosaur roar and song of American Robin]
The evidence and theories are complex. Dinosaur fossils showing feathers, hollow bones, wishbones, and flight-adapted fingers link dinosaurs to modern birds. Scientists still debate whether flight in birds developed from the “ground up” or from the “trees down.” From the “ground up,” as fast-running dinosaurs leaping into the air after prey. Or from the “trees down,” as small, ancient reptiles gliding through the forest.
Don’t expect Tyrannosaurus rex in your birdbath any time soon, but recently discovered fossils show the oldest links ever found between feathered dinosaurs and birds. For a look at the 160-million-year-old creature that’s got the scientific world aflutter, anchiornis huxleyi (pronounced ang kee OR niss HUX lee eye), come to our website birdnote.org. I’m Michael Stein.
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Call provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2009 Tune In to Nature.org     Revised for Nov. 2009

ID #: 111105dinoKPLU            dinosaur-01b-2009-11-05-MS

new fossil discovery in China: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1215998/Feathered-fossils-prove-birds-evolved-dinosaurs-say-Chinese-scientists.html