Random Compelling Evidence Birds Are Just Dinosaurs Living Among Us (14 items)

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  (#5) Make A Wish On A Dinosaur - Because They Have Wishbones

  Besides hollow bones, dinosaurs and birds share a variety of other skeletal features, including air spaces connected to the ear region, large orbital openings, as well as similarities in vertebrae, hindlimb, pelvic structures, and wishbones. Wishbones were once thought to be specific to birds. However, this union of right and left collarbones at the sternum is found in several theropods as well, dating back 150 million years.
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  (#12) Dutiful And Doting Parents

  Fossils have shed light on the brooding behavior of dinosaurs and, once again, they display many similarities to birds. It’s thought some dinosaurs not only watched and protected their unborn children, but also kept them warm, and even fed the offspring after they hatched. What's even more incredible is that despite there being nearly 9,000 species of birds, almost all of them do the exact same things with their young.
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  (#4) Hollow Bones Made For Better Breathing

  Dinosaur fossils showcasing hollow bones are not new. However, evidence pointing to their exact role and connection to modern-day birds is continually being revealed.

  Hollow bones are one of the characteristics that make birds capable of flight. But this lightweight feature also helps birds to breath more efficiently. While humans and other mammals have diaphragms that allow their lungs to change in volume, birds (and their theropod ancestors) use bones along their rib cage called uncinate processes to help pump air in and out of their lungs. This respiratory distinction is thought to have made predatory theropods fast on their feet, and has given birds a conservation measure during the costly energy expenditure of flight.
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  (#9) Would You Like Rocks With Your Meal?

  Gastroliths, also known as "gizzard stones" are rocks or pebbles an animal purposely swallows to aid with digestion. The rough and sharp rocks help break down the food in an animal’s stomach, eventually being vomited up and replaced by new stones when they’ve been rendered smooth. Fossils have revealed that several species of dinosaurs utilized gizzard stones. Gastroliths are found in some reptiles and marine animals, but most prominently in birds.
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  (#3) The Wind Beneath Their Wings

  Feathers are important for flight, but without wings, the dinosaurs would have stayed terrestrial animals. It’s believed theropod adaptations, including flexible scapulas and rotating wrists, helped pave the way for the development of wings. Picturing these early proto-wings, combined with a theropod’s plumage, it’s easy to imagine how these speedy animals could have used simple gliding and coasting to out-compete those in and out of their species before true flight was even possible.
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  (#7) Zero Out Of Four Chiropractors Approve Of Dino Posture

  One of the reasons bipedalism isn’t always obvious in dinosaurs has to do with their elongated appearance - a more common characteristic of quadrupeds. And while there are notable exceptions like ostriches and flamingos, most modern-day birds also favor a more horizontal posture.

  Crouched stances in theropods are thought to have started with the development of larger forearms. This adaptation, which may have allowed certain theropods to grasp with their claws, eventually led to the evolution of wings in avian-dinosaurs.

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