Origin of Flight in BirdsTop of Mind with Julie Rose • Season 1, Episode 425, Segment 2
Nov 17, 2016 • 17m
Origin of Flight in Birds
Guest: Michael Habib, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Research Associate in the Dinosaur Institute at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
A region in Southern China has become a hotspot for dinosaur discoveries: in the last five years, half a dozen bird-like dinos have been unearthed there. The latest was found by construction workers building a new school. The name they gave it translates into: “Muddy dragon on the road to heaven” and it appears to have perished after getting stuck in the mud. It has a beak, a crest on its head, wings and feathers. But scientists say it probably couldn’t fly.