66 million years ago, during the last great extinction, three-quarters of all living organisms disappeared; among them, the dinosaurs. But some of them may have survived, and have continued to evolve to this day. We are talking about the birds. This fascinating question is the center of the intervention of the paleobiologist and omitologist Francisco Serrano , who participated in December 2019 in the Homo Curiosus scientific dissemination event:
“The current lineage of birds survived because they had a granivorous diet, they fed on seeds, which were preserved for a long time in forests that had been burned after the catastrophic meteorite event. Feeding on seeds would have been an ecological advantage compared to animals. that ate meat We have evidence that all modern birds came from birds that were terrestrial and granivorous.
“Before the mass extinction, mammals were mere rodents, very small in size and with a very limited type of ecology. The fact that dinosaurs that were not birds and other types of animals became extinct allowed mammals to gain access to a great variety of ecological niches to be colonized “.
Modern dinosaurs (birds) are very intelligent. As Francisco indicates: “There are different studies regarding the density of their brains that equate it to that of some primates or dolphins. From the cranial mold left by the fossils, we can conclude that theropod dinosaurs, the most closely related to birds They surely also had a fairly high level of intelligence. “
On the other hand, dinosaurs did not look like reptiles , as we are shown in the movies. Since the feathered appearance of dinosaurs was not yet known, the tendency was to believe that they looked similar to large lizards. “Today we have enough evidence that they were covered in feathers,” explains Francisco.
Science fans tend to feel a great fascination for dinosaurs which, according to Serrano, surely has to do with the ancestral fears that all humans have: “They were large, carnivores … that fascination we continue to maintain since we were little” .
About Francisco Serrano
Francisco Serrano is a paleobiologist and ornithologist. He spent three and a half years working for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (California, United States), where he is still linked as a Research Associate. He is currently a “Juan de la Cierva” Researcher at the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Spain and teaches classes at the University of Malaga as a visiting researcher. His study focuses on fossils of Birds from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods to clarify the early evolution of flight and its relationship with the other dinosaurs with which they lived.
He has participated in the Homo Curiosus scientific dissemination event, where he has shown a fascinating vision about the heirs of the dinosaurs, who still live among us: birds. The talk was accompanied by the documentary A New Prehistory: The Mystery of the Feathered Dragons.
Documentary A New Prehistory: The Mystery of the Feathered Dragons
Where do birds come from and who are their ancestors? How did feathers and the ability to fly appear? For a long time we did not know the answer and his family tree remained in the oldest known bird, a famous fossil discovered in Germany in the 19th century, the Archeopteryx. But in 1996, the exhumation of thousands of animals in China revealed new clues about the origin of birds, such as that most dinosaurs were covered in feathers, and that some of those feathered dragons, like Anchiornis, could even fly. In 2014, the discovery of a new feathered herbivorous dinosaur would further confirm the theory that birds are its descendants. With the help of the world’s best paleontologists and the support of stunning 3D recreations, we unmask myths from the past and seek answers to some of evolution’s big questions.
