Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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When the dinosaurs died, so did forestsand tree-dwelling birds
May 24, 2018
https://phys.org/news/2018-05-dinosaurs-died-forestsand-tree-dwelling-birds
Sixty-six million years ago, the world burned. An asteroid crashed to Earth with a force one million times larger than the largest atomic bomb, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs. But dinosaurs weren't the only ones that got hit hardin a new study, scientists learned that the planet's forests were decimated, leading to the extinction of tree-dwelling birds.
"Looking at the fossil record, at plants and birds, there are multiple lines of evidence suggesting that the forest canopies collapsed," says Regan Dunn, a paleontologist at the Field Museum in Chicago and a co-author on the study in Current Biology. "Perching birds went extinct because there were no more perches."
And with no more trees, the scientists found, tree-dwelling birds went extinct. The birds that did survive were ground-dwellersbirds whose fossilized remains show longer, sturdier legs like we see in modern ground birds like kiwis and emus. The Cretaceous equivalent of robins and sparrows, with delicate little legs made for perching on tree branches, had no place to live.
May 24, 2018
https://phys.org/news/2018-05-dinosaurs-died-forestsand-tree-dwelling-birds
Sixty-six million years ago, the world burned. An asteroid crashed to Earth with a force one million times larger than the largest atomic bomb, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs. But dinosaurs weren't the only ones that got hit hardin a new study, scientists learned that the planet's forests were decimated, leading to the extinction of tree-dwelling birds.
"Looking at the fossil record, at plants and birds, there are multiple lines of evidence suggesting that the forest canopies collapsed," says Regan Dunn, a paleontologist at the Field Museum in Chicago and a co-author on the study in Current Biology. "Perching birds went extinct because there were no more perches."
And with no more trees, the scientists found, tree-dwelling birds went extinct. The birds that did survive were ground-dwellersbirds whose fossilized remains show longer, sturdier legs like we see in modern ground birds like kiwis and emus. The Cretaceous equivalent of robins and sparrows, with delicate little legs made for perching on tree branches, had no place to live.