New research: Differences in eating with dinosaurs may help birds escape extinction

BEIJING, April 25 (Xinhua) -- During the mass extinction event 65 million years ago, meteorites hit the Earth and frequent volcanic activity, causing the Earth to die year-on-year, relying on photo-cooperative plants in large numbers, eventually leading to the extinction of plant-eating, carnivorous dinosaurs and so on.
did the dinosaur's offspring birds survive the mass extinction triggered by the collapse of the food chain? The mystery of paleontological evolution, which has long been the focus of the academic community, has recently been solved by new research by Chinese scientists - the difference in eating with dinosaurs may be the key to birds surviving extinction.
Reporter 25 from China's
Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (
Paleoanthropology Institute) was informed that the Institute's Li Zhiheng team and
Synchred Radiation Research Center and other cooperative units, together with the closest relationship with birds, non-bird dinosaurs to ancient birds tooth evolution characteristics, research results revealed that the differences in food between birds and dinosaurs is likely to be able to avoid 65 million years ago the key to disaster.Ancient Spine, Li Zhiheng's team used high-resolution penetrating X-ray microscopes of synchrotron radiation to microstructure small non-bird dinosaurs - including toothed dragons, near-bird dragons, small thieves, and ancient birds - with teeth such as today's birds, anti-birds, birds, and hot river birds. Comparative observation and research revealed that although the simple enamel layer was preserved in early ancient birds, the porous hooded tooth essence layer between tooth enamel and tooth essence has disappeared, while the porous hooded tooth essence layer is considered to be a special shock-absorbing protective structure developed in carnivorous dinosaur teeth to avoid tooth breakage during predatory processes. Not only in ancient birds, but the hooded essence of a small dragon specimen in this study has also disappeared.According to the
team, the findings mean that birds and some closely related dinosaurs no longer need special kinomic protective structures in their teeth, which indirectly confirms that their eating habits, such as bite force and predatory, have been very different from carnivorous dinosaurs, through predatory conversion to avoid competition with carnivorous dinosaurs on the food ecosystem, adaptability greatly improved, thus through the most difficult moments of extinction events.
team points out that although a small group of non-bird dinosaurs, such as the Small Thieves, have also converged and evolved, it is still difficult to avoid a crisis of extinction, compared with the evolutionary trend of widespread plant-eating or omnivorousization of ancient birds.
the paper, completed by Chinese scientists on the evolution of dinosaurs to birds, has been published online in the international academic journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.