1. Why are the fossils
found in the Solenhofen limestone quarry in
Germany so valuable? What kinds of fossils are found there?
Pteradactyls (Òwing-fingerÓ) and Archaeopteryx are two of the important fossils found there. They are valuable because they are
preserved in very find detail and allow scientists to study the origin of these
winged animals in more detail.
2. What are Pterodactyls and Pterosaurs? Describe some of their features, including their size.
They are Òwinged lizardsÓ, extinct flying reptiles. They range in size from sparrows to 40 feet wing spans. They have membrane wings that are attached to 1 long finger. They evolved about the same time as the first dinosaurs
3. How different are
the wings of Pterosaur and bird wings?
Very different. Birds have feathery wings that are
attached to the forearm and hand and Pterosaurs have membrane wings that are
attached to 1 long finger.
4. What is Archaeopteryx? Describe some of its features. How does it
fit with Darwin's evolutionary
theory?
It is a Jurassic fossil that is
part reptile and part bird. It has
a long bony tail and sharp teeth like a reptiles but wings and feathers like
birds. Darwin predicted missing
links and intermediate/transitional forms as exemplified by Archaeopteryx.
5. What is convergent
evolution?
Unrelated animals evolve similar
features, e.g. some birds may resemble dinosaurs even though they may not have
directly descended from dinosaurs.
Wings appear in both birds and pteradactyls even though these two
animals are not directly related.
6. What are
thecodonts? What are theropod
dinosaurs and what evidence
supports that dinosaurs are
related to birds?
Thecodonts are reptiles that are
ancestral to dinosaurs and may be the ancestors to birrst, the ancestral
stock. Theropods, like Deiononychus are carnivores, bipedal dinosaurs. They have a 3-clawed toe, a moon-shaped
wrist bone and similarities in the arms,
shoulders and to the theropods.
7. What are some
arguments against dinosaur-bird relationships?
The dinosaurs that are most
similar to birds evolved in the Cretaceous, much later than the appearance of
the oldest bird fossil. Half-moon
shaped bone in the wrist only looks similar, it may have evolved from a more
primitive bone and it functions differently than a similar bone in dinosaurs/Archaeopteryx. Birds may
have evolved in the Triassic from a crocodile.
8. How did birds learn
to fly? How did the scales evolve?
Possibly from the ground-up through
running with powerful leg muscles.
Maybe early birds were climbers without a good flapping mechanism and
flew from trees-down by gliding.
10. What did Prof. Chattergee and
his students find in their field
excavations? What is Protoavis?
They found a small bird skeleton,
Protoavis, that has a skull and other bones more similar to modern birds than Archaeopteryx. This
ÔprotobirdÕ may replace Archaeopteryx
as the oldest bird.