Finally, You Can See Dinosaurs in All Their Feathered Glory

At first glance, it may be hard to see how the ducks you feed, the pigeons you dodge, or the peacocks you admire have anything in common with the “terrible lizards” But many scientists now believe that modern birds are living dinosaurs. Specifically, a group of two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs called theropods seems to have evaded the great 65 million years ago by developing feathers, bigger and more adaptable brains, and smaller, more airborne forms. It’s important that people understand dinosaurs are still among us,chair of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. “They’re represented by at least 13,000 species alive today.

Norell has curated the new exhibit , which opened on March 18, that maps out the evolutionary history of birds while challenging the popular perception of dinosaurs as green, scaly lizards. Following the latest evidence, all the dinosaurs on display are covered in feathers.It’s really the first time dinosaurs have been portrayed in a true, state-of-the-art kind of way,” says Norell. “I think this is really going to shake up the way people think of dinosaurs.”In scientific circles, the idea that birds are living dinosaurs isn’t new. As early as the 1800s the state geologist of Massachusetts, and  an English biologist, both independently noted that dinosaur footprints and bones were very bird-like. But their observations were largely overlooked until of Yale University resurrected the similarities between birds and theropod dinosaurs nearly a century later.

Ostrom studied a fossil creature from the end of the Jurassic period called  a raven-sized dinosaur that had wings and flight feathers. He found that the bird-like animal shared skeletal characteristics with theropods—sharp teeth, three-clawed fingers, and a long bony tail. 

Since then, thousands of feathered dinosaurs have been discovered, many of which seem to be branches in the bird family tree. And in 1996, scientists in China unearthed the first feathered theropod that isn't a direct relative of birds. These discoveries are helping scientists not only piece together the origin of modern avians, but also to re-write long-held notions about the ways many dinosaurs looked and behaved.