When I was a kid, I learned about Dinosaur being “giant lizard”, and it’s been may-be 10 years, that I hear “Birds are dinosaurs”.

I am curious on how the concept evolve, both among paleontologists, and among the general public.

  • Nighed@sffa.communityEnglish
    171·
    4 days ago

    It’s not X turning into Y when it comes to evolution. There were all kinds of different dinosaurs, that evolved I to all kinds of different niches. Most of those then went extinct due to rocks falling from the sky, or the entirety of India turning into a huge volcano etc.

    So it’s not that a T-Rex turned into a chicken, it’s that T-Rexs lived alongside other dinosaurs that developed feathers and filled more niches etc. those that survived eventually became birds. (Have you ever seen an Emu up close?!? No wonder the Australians lost to them 🤣)

    Disclaimer: I have no specific knowledge. Also, remember this happened over (billions? hundreds of millions) of years.

    Other comments about just not noticing feathers are valid too.

      • Nighed@sffa.communityEnglish
        8·
        4 days ago

        Ugh, life took ages to get started. Lazy bacteria!

        It’s still a hell of a long time if you consider that the entirety of recorded (ish) history is only a few thousand years long.

        Updated comment to remove an order of magnitude.

        • thefartographer@lemm.ee
          11·
          4 days ago

          Approximately four and a half billion years ago, some rocks and shit became friends and hugged each other so tight that they created the earth.

          After a few hundreds of millions of years, life appeared on earth.

          Then, four-ish billion years later, Nyasasaurus was like, “roar y’all.”

          And now there are birds. They’re like, “caw y’all,” and we’re all like, “yo, that’s a bird.” Then the lizards are like, “me too bro.”

          The end.

    • scootypuff@lemmy.world
      6·
      4 days ago

      it’s not that a T-Rex turned into a chicken

      As a chicken owner, I can assure you chickens absolutely are tiny T-Rexes. Tiny, ferocious, bloodthirsty little T-Rexes that poop everywhere.