Earth and Life through time
Winter 2002

Nova - The Case of the Flying Dinosaur

This copyrighted NOVA film follows the controversy of whether dinosaurs were the direct descendents of birds.  The film starts with one of the most famous dinosaurs in the world: Archaeopteryx lithographica.  The original idea sprung from Dr. John Ostrom (Yale professor of paleontology - now retired).  The film looks at fossils in the Solenhoefen quarries in Germany.  Dienonychus is discussed in the context of cold-bloodedness or warm-bloodedness.

What is Archaeopteryx lithographica, and why is it so important? When did it live??

What is a hypothesis for the evolution of flight?

What suggests that dinosaurs were warm-blooded?

What are the possible lineages for dinosaurs and birds?

When is this split inferred to have happened?

What is protoavis?  What is the significance of the Triassic bird-like fossil discovered by Sankar Chatterjee?

If the earliest bird fossil is as old as the earliest dinosaur fossil (how old?), what does this mean for the birds-from-dinosaurs theory?
 

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