How did feathers evolve? - Carl Zimmer
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TEDEd Animation
Let’s Begin…
To
look at the evolution of modern bird feathers, we must start a long time ago,
with the dinosaurs from whence they came. We see early incarnations of feathers
on dinosaur fossils, and remnants of dinosaurs in a bird’s wish bone.
Carl Zimmer explores the stages of evolution and how even the reasons
for feathers have evolved over millions of years.
Additional Resources for you to Explore
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals. They first appeared during the Triassic period, approximately 230 million years ago, and were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for 135 million years, from the beginning of the Jurassic (about 201 million years ago) until the end of the Cretaceous (66 million years ago), when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of most dinosaur groups at the close of the Mesozoic Era. The fossil record indicates that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic Period and, consequently, they are considered a subgroup of dinosaurs by many paleontologists. Some birds survived the extinction event that occurred 66 million years ago, and their descendants continue the dinosaur lineage to the present day.
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Renowned paleontologist Jack Horner has spent his career trying to reconstruct a dinosaur. He's found fossils with extraordinarily well-preserved blood vessels and soft tissues but never intact DNA. So, in a new approach, he's taking living descendants of the dinosaur (chickens) and genetically engineering them to reactivate ancestral traits — including teeth, tails, and even hands — to make a "Chickenosaurus".
Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, orplumage, on birds and some non-avian theropoddinosaurs. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates, and indeed a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty.
Watch this video by the BBC about feathers and dinosaurs and the mystery that baffled many scientists.
Eosinopteryx feathered dinosaur offers clues on bird evolution, an article by BBC.
Carl Zimmer wrote an article for National Geographic, published February 2011, on Feather Evolution.
Plenty of robots can fly -- but none can fly like a real bird. That is, until Markus Fischer and his team at Festo built SmartBird, a large, lightweight robot, modeled on a seagull, that flies by flapping its wings. A soaring demo fresh from TEDGlobal 2011.
Renowned paleontologist Jack Horner has spent his career trying to reconstruct a dinosaur. He's found fossils with extraordinarily well-preserved blood vessels and soft tissues but never intact DNA. So, in a new approach, he's taking living descendants of the dinosaur (chickens) and genetically engineering them to reactivate ancestral traits — including teeth, tails, and even hands — to make a "Chickenosaurus".
Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, orplumage, on birds and some non-avian theropoddinosaurs. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates, and indeed a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty.
Watch this video by the BBC about feathers and dinosaurs and the mystery that baffled many scientists.
Eosinopteryx feathered dinosaur offers clues on bird evolution, an article by BBC.
Carl Zimmer wrote an article for National Geographic, published February 2011, on Feather Evolution.
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Meet The Creators
- Artist Armella Leung
- Educator Carl Zimmer
- Sound Designer Olivier Oswald
- Narrator Carl Zimmer
