Course: American Museum of Natural History > Unit 1
Lesson 3: Dinosaur extinction- A brief history of mass extinctions
- Discarded theories for dinosaur extinction
- Were dinosaurs undergoing long-term decline before mass extinction?
- Are any dinosaurs still alive today?
- Are any dinosaurs still alive today?
- How did all dinosaurs except birds go extinct?
- How did all dinosaurs except birds go extinct?
- Quiz: Dinosaur Extinction
- Exploration Questions: Dinosaur Extinction
- Answers to Exploration Questions: Dinosaur Extinction
Are any dinosaurs still alive today?
Many, shared, evolutionary characteristics can be found in the skeletons of birds and other dinosaurs. One can follow the development of these evolutionary innovations by following along the evolutionary tree of dinosaurs from larger groups into successively smaller ones. In an evolutionary sense, birds are a living group of dinosaurs because they descended from the common ancestor of all dinosaurs. Other than birds, however, there is no scientific evidence that any dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, or Triceratops, are still alive. These, and all other nonavian dinosaurs became extinct at least 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period.
. Created by American Museum of Natural History.Want to join the conversation?
- According to the video, does that mean that there are still living dinosaurs? Birds are dinosaurs?(5 votes)
- Birds of prey are the easiest to tell that they are raptors(1 vote)
- Why are birds dinosaurs?(1 vote)
- Scientists (a website who says there scientists). Say that birds have spines, and wings. Which the category "Dinosauria" has. Not only that they are more related then dinos are to there wives! So the next time some dude says there are only bird dinos. Tell him there are more dinos then the Mesozoic! (Cause some scientist think Lizards are).(1 vote)