Relatives of Living Ducks and Chickens Existed Alongside Dinosaurs More Than 65 Million Years Ago

NC State University ^ | Jan. 19, 2005 | Dr. Julia Clarke

[bondserv]

Relatives of Living Ducks and Chickens Existed Alongside Dinosaurs More Than 65 Million Years Ago

Newly published North Carolina State University research into the evolution of birds shows the first definitive fossil proof linking close relatives of living birds to a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Research by paleontologist Dr. Julia A. Clarke, an assistant professor in the marine, earth and atmospheric sciences department at NC State, and colleagues provides unprecedented fossil proof that some close cousins to living bird species coexisted with dinosaurs more than 65 million years ago. Information from a new avian species called Vegavis iaai indicates that these birds lived in the Cretaceous period and must have survived the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) mass extinction event that included the disappearance of all other dinosaurs.

-snip-

Abstract: Long-standing controversy surrounds the question of whether living bird lineages emerged after non-avian dinosaur extinction at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary or whether these lineages coexisted with other dinosaurs and passed through this mass extinction event.

[bondserv]

Ping!

[NorCalRepub]

of course.....it is that old Tur-Ducken we have for Thanksgiving.........

[austinmark]

LOL.. ROFL !

[Paladin2]

What does Dinosaur taste like? ---- Chicken of course!

[bondserv]

This may be of interest.

[martin_fierro]

T   H   E   Y        L   I   V   E   !

[bondserv]

One half of the Vegavis iaai specimen (left) and the volumetric rendering from the computed tomography (CT) data (right).

[gortklattu]

Remember this thread?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1279842/posts

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Paleo Conservative]

If it walks like a duck and
quacks like a duck....

[microgood]

these birds lived in the Cretaceous period and must have survived the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) mass extinction event that included the disappearance of all other dinosaurs

Everyone that saw the movie 10 million years BC knows what happened to the dinosaurs. We finally invented spears and figured out how to eat them. I am not sure, however, how they finally got those big dinosaur birds that were picking us out of that lake, maybe they used nets. We owe our ancestors a lot for getting rid of the dinosaurs. They could really ruin your day back then.

[Michael_Michaelangelo]

Eeeexcellent!

[Cicero]

Some of my relatives are pretty old too, but this is ridiculous.

[bondserv]

Classic.

Reagan would have ran these Evo's out of town.

Duck, Duck Evogoose.

[RandallFlagg]

MMmmmm! Looks like we'd better get to eatin' them thar things!

[bondserv]

A reconstruction by well-known dinosaur artist Michael Skrepnick shows Vegavis in the immediate foreground with a duckbill dinosaur (hadrosaur) in the background. Copyright Michael Skrepnick 2005.

[dangus]

We've known for a long time that DINOs and Chickens have lived side by side.

[dangus]

...sadly, DINOs are virtually extinct.

[dangus]

Hey, who you calling a dinosaur?