Origin of birds

The origin of birds is one of the most interesting questions in palaeontology and evolution. Birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Mesozoic era.

Thomas Henry Huxley ("Darwin's bulldog"), who was a comparative anatomist, made a study of this nearly 150 years ago. He compared the first fossil bird, Archaeopteryx, with a small theropod dinosaur, Compsognathus. They are two fossils from the same place and time: the Solnhofen limestone in Bavaria, Germany. The strata come from the end of the Jurassic period, about 144 million years ago.

Huxley's papers on Archaeopteryx, and the origin of birds, were of great interest then, and still are. He showed that the two fossils were almost identical, except for the front limbs and feathers of Archaeopteryx.

He united reptiles and birds under the title of Sauropsida, and thought that birds had evolved from small carnivorous dinosaurs.^[1][2]

1. ↑ Paul G. 2002. Dinosaurs of the Air, the evolution and loss of flight in dinosaurs and birds. p171–224 Johns Hopkins, Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-6763-0
2. ↑ Foster, Michael and Lankester, E. Ray (eds )1898–1903. The scientific memoirs of Thomas Henry Huxley. 4 vols and supplement, Macmillan, London ISBN 1-4326-4011-9