A Closer Look at the Dinosaurs with Us Now!

You’ve probably heard that the humble chicken is the closest living relative to the mighty Tyrannosaurs Rex, but do you know why that is?

Today, we’re going to take you on an evolutionary journey that will leave you feeling a little smarter, and have you looking at the birds around you with a little more wonder.

Source: Pixabay, Jordi Payà // Wikimedia, Paul IJsendoorn // Flickr

Now, if you are a nature nerd like me, you are probably thinking to yourself “I already know that birds and dinosaurs are related!” To be honest, I, too, thought I knew everything there was to know about the evidence that links pigeon to Protoceratops. It turns out that, as usual, I was wrong.

So, whether you fancy yourself an evolution expert or a paleontological novice, here’s a great video from PBS Digitial Studios’ It’s Okay to Be Smart to leave us all the smartest person in the room.

I love this particular video because it leaves me feeling a little smarter–who doesn’t like that feeling— and, more importantly, reminds me to dig deeper into the knowledge I just take for granted.

Now, we have quite a few articles here on EWC that can help to flesh out some of the ideas mentioned in this video, and if you have a few extra minutes they are certainly worth checking out!

You may remember him mentioning, briefly, a bird called the cassowary. These birds really do look prehistoric, and if you want to learn more about them you can check out the article we wrote to get a better introduction.

If you are more interested in the subject of feathers, here’s a super cool video detailing how scientists are able to figure out what color dinosaurs feathers would have been by looking closely at the fossil record!

To dive a little deeper into the subject of dinosaur mating dances, here’s an article we wrote that takes a look at what dancing dinos may have looked like.

Finally, if we aren’t quite satisfied with knowing that we are surrounded by dinosaur relatives and wanted to bring a t-rex back, how would we go about doing that? Would it even be possible?

I hope you enjoyed this deeper dive into the prehistoric archive! I believe the best way to remind ourselves that it’s still an amazing world is to arm ourselves with knowledge!

Stay beautiful & keep laughing!

-Liesl