Suffering from meteorite disaster but why dinosaurs are extinct, birds are not?

The answer is not just size. The problem lies in a much more unexpected factor.

About 66 million years ago, a giant meteorite hit Earth, wiping out three-quarters of all organisms on Earth, and warming the climate for 100,000 years.

About 66 million years ago, a giant meteorite hit Earth.

That event killed the dinosaurs to the last ones - at least according to current scientific knowledge. But the question is: why do birds still live?

This is a really headache question than you think. Birds make nests in trees, and at a time when meteors fall, fires burn most of the world's giant forests. And if so, it is clear that birds cannot survive.

The surviving birds are non-agile species, living mainly on the ground.

A recent study conducted by experts from the University of Bath (UK) has provided an explanation for this phenomenon. Accordingly, it is true that only birds that do not live on trees survive. The survivors are non-agile species, living mainly on the ground.

Specifically, palaeontologist Daniel Field - author of the study - analyzed the ancient plant fossil samples. They found that after a meteorite crash, a large amount of charcoal was formed. Inside that contains fern spores - believed to be the replacement of those burned forests.

But more importantly, they realized that birds that lived in the same period as dinosaurs all relied on trees, while the ancestors of modern birds did not seem to fly. The team concludes that flying birds also die when disaster strikes. Then the ability to fly, live on trees will be re-evolved later on their less flexible relatives.

Remarkably, birds are basically dinosaurs (during the Triassic and Mesozoic periods from 225 million years ago). Because they are dinosaurs, they will have sharp teeth. However, due to the need to reduce incubation time to survive, this trait is also lost.

The birds were all dinosaurs before.(illustration).

"Today, birds are one of the most diverse classes of vertebrates - with 11,000 species worldwide," Field said.

"But only a handful of birds survive the genocide 66 million years ago, and all birds are now quickly divided from them."

The study received the consent of experts, but there were many objections. According to Alan Cooper, an evolutionary researcher, history is unlikely to be as simple as what was written. There is no guarantee that all flying birds are extinct, as well as other factors that do not affect bird evolution.

The study is published in Current Biology.