The Bird-Dinosaur Connection Answer Key

Did you know that dinosaurs still live among us today? Scientists have learned that birds are dinosaurs, too!

Write down (or draw) the similarities and differences that you see between birds and dinosaurs. Look for birds in the Cowan Tetrapod Collection, and dinosaurs in the Dinosaur Tracks Exhibit.

Image 1: Deinonychus, a birdlike dinosaur that may have had feathers. Photo: Wikimedia commons user Emily Willoughby, used through a creative commons license.

Dinosaurs Birds

Both

Physiology: Size, appearance, features Physiology: Size, appearance, features Information that can be found on the museum floor

Information that can be found

on the museum floor Similar skeletal -Birds’ height ranges from 6cm tall (bee hummingbird) to 2m tall structures: -Brachiosaurus was 25m long, (ostrich)

and could lift its head 13m off -Four-toed feet (display case opposite 03.06)

the ground (52.12) -Wishbone -Various kinds of beaks can be -Feathers -Some dinosaurs are used like a shovel, sieve, hammer,

armoured (Dinosaur nutcracker, spear, or tweezers (This information Trackways) (opposite 03.09, to the right) can be found in

Time Period: Began appearing the bottom -Various kinds of feet can be used in the Triassic era (52.08) drawers of the for feeding, preening, building Exploring nests, incubating their eggs, and attracting a mate (opposite 03.09) Information that may be Evolution display gathered through observation bank, opposite) -Colourful plumage is used to attract mates, or help with -Different kinds of teeth for eating meat, plants, or both camouflage (opposite 03.08)

Time period: Began evolving from dinosaurs in the Jurassic era (Timeline Exhibit)

1 Created for Beaty Museum Educational use by Madison Rafter, education practicum student. 2019.