Evolution Of Dinosaur

The article begins with explaining how dinosaurs once roamed the Earth and over time evolved into the feathered birds we have come to know today. The terrifying beast went from having enormous teeth to simple bird beaks. How the dinosaur’s mouth has transformed continued to be a mystery, but a study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provided insight into a potential evolutionary mechanism. Amy Balanoff and a team of evolutionary biologist used fossils and a large comparative analysis of modern animals found that the loss of teeth and the emergence of beaks are connected processes in theropods. The team suggested that over time the beak grew across the dinosaur’s face which inhibited the growth of teeth. …show more content…
For their most recent paper, the team examined more dinosaur jaw fossils and found two other theropods that underwent transformations similar to Limusaurus. The two theropods were an early Cretaceous bird called Sapeornis and a small caenagnathid oviraptorosaur. These findings demonstrate an evolutionary process of the beak for the first time.
The team wanted to further support their hypothesis so they performed a comparative and statistical analysis of thousands of modern vertebrates to understand the shared characteristics. They found that beaked animals tended to be born from eggs laid on land and from embryos that had structure on the tipoff their snouts. Josef Stiegler linked the team’s analysis to what they found in the fossil records. Stephen Brusatte reviewed the paper and said that the study was a great example how fossils and genetics can be used together to understand how the birds evolved from dinosaurs. I have always thought that dinosaurs and reptiles were related. Then a few years later someone told me that they are more closely related to birds. It was hard to believe at first, but after reading this paper it seems to be more