The Origin of Birds
From The Science of Birds · 25:07
Show by Ivan Phillipsen
Episode: 1SummaryLearn about the deep evolutionary origin of birds and follow their history up to the great extinction that happened 66 million years ago.First, I discuss what we mean when we say “bird.” What characteristics separate modern birds from other animal groups?Then I discuss the evidence—both historical and recent—that scientists have used to determine the evolutionary history of birds. Finally, we arrive at the answer of where birds fit on the tree of life.Research CitationsDiscovery of collagen protein in Tyrannosaurus femur (Asara et al. 2007. Science)Archaeornithura, the earliest known true ancestor of birds (Wang et al. 2015. Nature Communications)Errors and ClarificationsError - 05:39 min: I say that scientists have genome sequences for 'all living birds.' What I meant was that we have genome sequences for representative species within each of the living bird families.Link to this episode on the Science of Birds websiteSupport the show
More episodes of The Science of Birds
More episodes
- Important Bird Areas (IBAs)
- Random Bird Thursday: An Adaptable Hurricane Survivor
- The Terror Birds
- Random Bird Thursday: A Judgemental Songbird with a Long Tail
- Birds and the Scientific Method
- Competition Between Bird Species
- The Biodiversity of Birds
- Migration in Birds
- Bird Songs - Part 1
- Bird Songs - Part 2
PodSearch is a free, independent podcast search engine. Read about PodSearch, the privacy policy or contact us.