Birds are dinosaurs
One branch of small feathered theropods takes to the air, and never stops.
- When
- Known to
- ± 10 million years
- Era
- Jurassic, Mesozoic
The bird lineage emerges from within the maniraptoran theropods, sharing hollow bones, wishbones, three-fingered hands, brooding behaviour and feathers with its non-flying relatives. There is no clean line where dinosaur ends and bird begins; the traits accumulated piecemeal over tens of millions of years. Around 11,000 living species of dinosaur remain.