How long has the evolution of birds been a story?

That’s right – the evolution of birds is a story that spans over 150 million years, from the earliest feathered dinosaurs to the modern avian species we see today. In this article, we will explore the incredible history of bird evolution and the many factors that have shaped the development of these amazing animals.

How did birds evolve?

The evolution of birds began in the Jurassic Period, with the earliest birds derived from a clade of theropod dinosaurs named Paraves. [ 1 ] Birds are categorized as a biological class, Aves. For more than a century, the small theropod dinosaur Archaeopteryx lithographica from the Late Jurassic period was considered to have been the earliest bird.

How did birds evolve after the big extinction?

In the few million years following the big extinction, birds went through an evolutionary explosion, adapting to new niches and diversifying into the many forms we know today. This process is called adaptive radiation. The same thing happened with mammals, more or less. Lucky us, right? There are many unanswered questions in the evolution of birds.