Ask aDino Field Guide ← After the Asteroid

Artist's reconstruction · realistic art coming in a later version

Modern Birds

“Living Dinosaurs”

After the Asteroid
When
66 million years ago – now
Where
Everywhere on Earth
Size
Hummingbird to ostrich
Diet
Varies

6 Facts

1–6
  1. Birds are the only dinosaurs that survived the asteroid — every bird alive today is a living dinosaur.
  2. They descend from small, feathered, meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods (the same group as T. rex and Velociraptor).
  3. When you see a chicken, pigeon, or eagle, you’re looking at a dinosaur.
  4. There are more than 10,000 species of birds today — more than all mammal species combined.
  5. Many features we think of as “bird” things — feathers, wishbones, hollow bones, nesting — first appeared in dinosaurs.
  6. The next time a bird sings outside your window, remember: the age of dinosaurs never fully ended.