Why 'birds' didn't die out with the dinosaurs: Feathered ancestors pecked on seeds to survive the mass extinction
Some ancestors of birds survived the asteroid impact 66 million years ago[CN]
一些鸟类祖先从6600万年前的小行星撞击存活下来。
These creatures evolved into the birds that populate the world today[CN]
这些物种进化成了鸟类,如今遍靡全球。
May have survived by pecking on seeds, which didn't die like plants[CN]
它们可能通过啄食种子,才不像植物那样死去。
Theory may explain why there are no modern birds with teeth-lined beaks[CN]
理论还揭示了现代鸟类嘴巴没有牙齿的原因。
Seed-eaters with toothless beaks (illustrated) outlived the dinosaurs because of their diet[CN]
没有牙齿的种子啄食者(如图)因饮食问题比恐龙活的要长。
Pecking at seeds may have helped ancestors of modern birds survive the cataclysm that wiped out the dinosaurs (illustrated), scientists believe[CN]
科学家坚信,啄食种子帮助现代鸟类祖先逃过了灭绝恐龙的大灾难。
New statistical analysis suggest that dinosaurs may have been in a state of decline for millions of years before the asteroid strike 66 million years ago, and that a lack of diversity may have ultimately led to their extinction[CN]
新的数据分析显示,早在6600万年前小行星撞击事件之前,恐龙的数量就一直锐减了好几百万年。缺乏多样性很可能最终导致了它们的灭亡。
The analysis revealed that there were a few dinosaurs which bucked the declining trend. Hadrosaurs, the 'sheep or rats' of the dinosaur world, became more specialised and were branching off into new species at a higher rate than going extinct. Pictured are Parasaurolophus, which emerged more than 76 million years ago[CN]
数据显示,也有一些与恐龙锐减趋势背道而驰。鸭嘴龙,恐龙世界的“小绵羊或小田鼠”,变得更特别,以更高的比率进化成了新的物种,避免了灭绝。图为副栉龙,出现时间早于7600万年前。
Pecking at seeds may have helped ancestors of modern birds survive the cataclysm that wiped out the dinosaurs, scientists believe.[CN]
科学家坚信,啄食种子帮助现代鸟类祖先逃过了灭绝恐龙的大灾难。
Small bird-like dinosaurs vanished along with giants such as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops after a huge meteor smashed into the Earth 66 million years ago.
But some of them survived until the end of the Cretaceous period and instead evolved into the birds that populate the world today.
They were the seed-eaters with toothless beaks, new evidence suggests.
The theory could explain why no bird alive today has a beak lined with teeth.
Lead researcher Derek Larson, from the University of Toronto in Canada, said: ‘The small bird-like dinosaurs in the Cretaceous, the maniraptoran dinosaurs, are not a well-understood group.
‘They're some of the closest relatives to modern birds, and at the end of the Cretaceous, many went extinct, including the toothed birds - but modern crown-group birds managed to survive the extinction.
‘The question is, why did that difference occur when these groups were so similar?’
The scientists began their investigation by analysing collected data on more than 3,000 fossilised teeth from four different maniraptoran families - a clade of dinosaurs that includes birds.
They found maniraptoran diversity continued right up to the end of the Cretaceous, suggesting a sudden extinction due to a catastrophic event.
The team suspected that diet might have played a part in the survival of lineages that produced today's birds.
Using published research about modern birds, including dietary information and inter-species relationships, the scientists inferred what their Cretaceous cousins might have eaten.
They hypothesised in the study published in the journal Current Biology that the last common ancestor of today's birds was a toothless seed-eater with a beak.
‘Some groups of beaked birds may have been able to survive the extinction event because they were able to eat seeds,’ Mr Larson said.
The massive asteroid or comet strike would have temporarily altered the Earth's climate and blotted out the sun with dust.
Widespread vegetation loss would have robbed many plant-eating animals of their food source, and in turn large predators would have gone hungry.
But hardy seeds may have sustained the small toothless birds until the world began to recover.
WERE DINOSAURS ALREADY ON THEIR WAY OUT BEFORE THE ASTEROID?
They ruled the Earth for more than 180 million years before apparently disappearing in a catastrophic asteroid impact.
But the dinosaurs may have been teetering on the edge long before the impact from space that has been credited with wiping them out 66 million years ago, according to a new study.
Researchers suggest the kings of the prehistoric world had in fact been been in a state of decline for millions of years, and that a lack of diversity may have ultimately led to their extinction.
While many believe the dinosaurs were going strong right up to the asteroid impact, the new analysis suggests that they may have already been dwindling for up to 50 million years earlier.
Indeed, the researchers say their slow demise may have enabled the earliest mammals to diversify just enough to be primed and ready to step into the gap left by the reptiles when the asteroid hit.
Using statistical analysis of the dinosaur family tree, researchers from the universities of Reading and Bristol carried out a study to compare the evolutionary dead ends against the fossil record.
Rather than going strong right up to the world-changing asteroid impact, their analysis showed that the number of new species of dinosaur emerging couldn't keep up with those dying out, so dinosaurs were becoming less diverse overall.
This reached a critical point almost 24 million years before the asteroid hit, when species were becoming extinct at a faster rate than new ones were coming into existence.
Dr Chris Venditti, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading and senior author of the study, told MailOnline: 'What that means is that up to 50 million years before the dinosaurs went extinct because of the asteroid impact, the rate of speciation had fallen behind the rate of extinction.
'They were starting to dwindle, dinosaurs couldn't replace themselves with new species at the rate at which they were dying out.'
'That goes in the face of… all the other evidence which has been proposed for the scenario in which they were reigning strong right up until the time of the impact.'
Evolution is wonderful, if only religion would die out, it what evolve the human race to truly understand the world.[CN]
进化是很奇妙的,只要宗教自行消亡,就是促使人类更清楚的认识世界。
Religion also evolves, regularly. Judaism, for instance, evolved into Christianity, Orthodox, Reform, etc. Christianity then evolved into Catholic, Orthodox and a bunch of other varieties, to include Protestantism. Along the way, it and Judaism evolved into the religion first found in Mec ca; then IT evolved into a number of different varieties.[CN]
宗教也一直在演变啊。比如犹太教,进化成基督教,东正教,宗教改革等等. 基督教又分化成天主教,东正教和其他一大串教别,包括新教。长路漫漫,它和犹太教演化成了麦城首先出现的宗教;然后IT进化成了不同的类别。
The love of God will save you, the unrepentant will answer for all their destruction of Gods creatures and people's. God gives us new bodies, God can save what he pleases-he is the Almighty! Seek him fast, keep his ways. These theories are just that! Those who attempt to steal Gods thinder will receive it.[CN]
上帝之爱会拯救你,不知悔改者上帝将毁灭他们的物种和人群。上帝给我我们新的身体,上帝可以拯救他喜爱的东西,上帝是万能的。追随他的脚步,遵守他的道。这些理论正是如此。试图偷窃上帝权威的回遭天谴的。
Religion (Union with the Spirit), is for those true in heart and who keep his word! I have heard God and seen the future, a mountain with water spewing over it and city, town, village lost to the waves, the current changing direction. Repent and love God! Keep his ways, or become dust in the wind.[CN]
宗教(精神的联合体),是给那些内心坚信,矢意践行的人的。我听了上帝的启示,看到了未来。高山流水,城市,城镇,乡村在洪浪中湮没,这就是目前的转向。向上帝忏悔,热爱上帝吧,遵守他的布道,或者成为风中尘埃。
dayofthelord---could you please answer a question? Why did god demand a sacrifice to save us from a hell he created? Why did he sacrifice himself to himself to change rules that he created? None of this has ever made sense to me. God is omnipotent and so would know what the outcome for himself was going to be before he had himself sacrificed. So really, it wasn't much of a sacrifice. A bit like me cutting of my hair, knowing full well its just going to grow back. Why demand a death to change rules that he made?[CN]
Dayofthelord, 能回答个问题吗?为什么上帝要我们舍得牺牲才救我们,况且地狱还是他造出来的?为什么他又牺牲自己来改变他亲手创下的规则?这些我从来就想不通。上帝是万能的,所以没牺牲前他就该知道自己的结局了。所以,这算个毛牺牲。就像我剪掉头发,知道它们还会长出来一样。为什么一定要用死来改变自己制定的规矩?
Err....pretty sure the birds with teeth would have been happy to feast on the obviously plentiful seed eating birds.[CN]
额…有齿的鸟儿肯定很享受这些明显只吃各种种子的鸟儿。
Birds are so clever. They are survivors and fly halfway round the world and back again to the exact same spot every year.[CN]
鸟类很聪明的。它们是幸存者,飞过大半个世界,每年又回到相同的栖息点。
Was looking up at the planet Jupiter shining brightly beside the moon and was thinking how remarkable and miraculous our little planet is; the countless species, civilisations, eras and ages its gone through. The history or backstory of all the other planets in the solar system are incomparable to earths. Its kind of mind boggling! Only for a series of cataclysmic events, earth as we know it or people wouldn't exist. Its awesome![CN]
看着木星在月亮旁边闪耀,想着我们地球是如此非凡和不可思议。数不尽的物种,文明,时代,年代都已成过去。太阳系其他所有星球的历史或者后历史都不能和地球比拟。真是难以置信!我们知道,地球也经历了一系列的灾难事件,不然人类存活不了。太赞了!
Load of rubbish about eating seeds...Trill didnt come out until the early 50`s[CN]
关于吃种子说了一大堆废话…这些鸟直至早期50年代才出现…
This is based purely on guesswork. It is in these scientists interests to keep making this stuff up so they get paid![CN]
这纯粹就是猜的。这是科学家们的兴趣,编造一些东西来骗钱。
That might explain how the birds survived but what about crocodiles, they didn't eat seeds. So a bit of a flaw in their argument I think.[CN]
那可以解释鸟儿存活,那鳄鱼呢?它们不吃籽啊。我想这争论还是有瑕疵的。
Crocodiles lived in water, and ate fish, so they survived. And of course the fish themselves survived. It was just many of the land plants that became rare, so many plant eating land dinasours died out, and also the carnivorous dinosaurs which fed on them. Our ancestors, the small mammals, also survived of course.[CN]
鳄鱼生活在水中,吃鱼就可以了,所以它们存活了下来。当然了鱼儿也存活了下来。只是路上的植物变得稀少了,很多草食恐龙因此绝迹,肉食动物没有草食动物吃了也灭绝了。我们的祖先,小哺乳动物,当然也存活了下来。
As scientists believe,they make it up as they go along to make way for more funding to make more up[CN]
像科学家坚信的那样,他们编造故事,继续赚钱来编更多的故事。