14 DAY TRIAL // Over the past few years, more and more scientific studies that refute the widely held idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs have been published in various respected journals around the globe. Such is the case with a new paper appearing in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which throws further doubts on the decade-old idea. What the researchers behind this investigation suggest is that ground-dwelling theropod dinosaurs were not the source for the ancestors of modern birds. This work casts new doubts on the established theory of how flight evolved.
Oregon State University Zoology Professor John Ruben is the author of the new research, which deals primarily with the fossil of a creature known as a microraptor that was discovered back in 2003. While studying a 3D model of the creature, Ruben and his team determined that its flying potential was only limited to gliding on various air currents from atop trees, and that the small animal was unable to fly on its own. This paper is consistent with previous ones published in the field over the last few years, and Ruben believes that evolution may have actually derived some dinosaurs from birds, and not the other way around, e! Science News reports.
“We're finally breaking out of the conventional wisdom of the last 20 years, which insisted that birds evolved from dinosaurs and that the debate is all over and done with. This issue isn't resolved at all. There are just too many inconsistencies with the idea that birds had dinosaur ancestors, and this newest study adds to that,” the expert says. According to the theory developed at Oregon, it may be that birds and dinosaurs actually had a common ancestor, very much similar to the common link between humans and primates. After the two types of animals split, dinosaurs and birds each evolved their separate ways, with the winged creatures eventually giving birth to raptors as we know them today.
“This [existing] model was not consistent with successful flight from the ground up, and that makes it pretty difficult to make a case for a ground-dwelling theropod dinosaur to have developed wings and flown away. On the other hand, it would have been quite possible for birds to have evolved and then, at some point, have various species lose their flight capabilities and become ground-dwelling, flightless animals – the raptors. This may be hugely upsetting to a lot of people, but it makes perfect sense. Pesky new fossils […] sharply at odds with conventional wisdom never seem to cease popping up,” the scientist concludes.