Are Birds Dinosaurs?

Well, dinosaurs did go extinct, but not in the way you think. For starters, right after the asteroid impact they did not immediately go extinct. They probably lingered around for a while, maybe 20 years.

 Some have even said that they still reigned through an extremely short time of the Cenozoic, about a whole 1,000 years. But this 1,000 years hypothesis is not as well supported as the 20–100 year hypothesis. But it does feel good to have hope that the dinosaurs (the non-avian ones) had seen the first sunrise of the Cenozoic. And it was not all dinosaurs that went extinct at one point of time. Only the non-avian ones are not here today. Because we live amongst dinosaurs.

Birds are dinosaurs. Not direct descendants. Not related. They are pure dinosaurs for every ounce they’re worth. And there is a clade we can thank for birds. Maniraptora. Maniraptora was an extinct clade of “nested” coelurosaurs. 

Coelurosaurs were one of the two types of theropods. The other one being carnosaurs. But the true magic happened in the coelurosaurs. Back to the Maniraptora, and in the late Jurassic of Germany, Archaeopteryx was starting a lineage which would survive a mass extinction.

Archaeopteryx is called the first “true bird” because it was the first to achieve powered flight- or something close to powered flight and close to gliding at the same time. Archaeopteryx flied by using it’s long, complex feathers which sprouted out from multiple places like the tail, arms, and even legs. At the tip of the tail was a paddle like formation made by feathers which aided flight. 

The elongated limbs of Archaeopteryx, combined with it’s feathers, created lift allowing for a form of flight. But this mix of “flight and glide” required Archaeopteryx to perch up on to tree branches and leap off. It also employed primitive flapping for longer flights.

Did flight in dinosaurs/birds evolve up in the tree tops, or on the ground. This is a well debated topic in birds and the evolution of their flight. The answer depends on the person you're asking. They might say tree up or ground up. But what are the reasons behind these answers? First we have to see what these hypotheses are. The tree up hypothesis is that flight evolved from the treetops meaning they climbed up onto trees and then glided. Over time natural selection favored the better fliers because they could hunt and escape predators more easily. Over time this selection of better gliding meant the time spent gliding also increased and over time this gliding started to turn into a primitive version of flight.

But the Ground up hypothesis is that they started leaping on the ground to get away from predators and etc. But (again) over time the better leapers started gliding and eventually, flying. Now I know the ground up sounds weird but now you will learn the reason behind each answer/hypothesis. For the tree up hypothesis, as any logical physicist will tell you to use gravity. Why go against it when you can use it? So a logical explanation but on the other hand. The reason for the ground up hypothesis was some research showing young birds first leaping and jumping on to trees before falling back down. this is before their wings were developed enough to fly. So it all depends on who you ask because nothing has been confirmed. Which one are you?

So are birds really dinosaurs?

The answer is… YES! Birds are in fact dinosaurs. Which technically means that the first humans have seen dinosaurs. Not only that but we continue to see them every day of our lives without knowing that we just saw one. We live amongst the ancient roots of the ones who once held the world in a firm grasp. So yes. Birds are indeed Dinosaurs.