Will We Ever Have Dinosaurs Again
Will at that place ever be dinosaurs again? — Anonymous
What an interesting question! Well, technically dinosaurs are still here in the form of birds. Just similar yous're a direct descendant of your grandparents, birds are the simply remaining straight descendants of dinosaurs.
But I suppose what yous're really asking is whether dinosaurs similar Tyrannosaurus or Triceratops could always exist again. Although that would be fascinating, the respond is most definitely no.
While there's simply 1 generation between you and your grandparents – that is, your parents – there are many millions of generations betwixt today's birds and their ancient dinosaurs ancestors.
This is why today's birds look, audio and behave and then differently to the prehistoric beasts that once roamed World.
Animals evolve to change, but tin't choose how
To sympathise this, we have to empathise "development". This is a process that explains how every living thing (including humans) evolved from past living things over millions, or even billions, of years.
Different animals evolve their own differences to aid them survive in the world. For example, 66 1000000 years agone, birds survived the catastrophic event that killed all other dinosaurs and marked the end of the Mesozoic era.
Later this, a blanket of ash wrapped around the globe, cooling it and blocking out the sunlight plants need to survive. Plant-eating animals would take struggled to stay alive.
But birds did, maybe considering they were small even and so. They probable ate seeds and insects and took shelter in small spaces. And existence able to fly would have helped them explore far and wide for nutrient and shelter.
That said, if the conditions that came after the dinosaur extinction event returned today, no modern animal would evolve back into a dinosaur. This is considering animals today have a very different evolutionary past to dinosaurs.
They evolved to have features that assist them survive in today's globe, rather than a prehistoric ane. And these features limit the ways they can evolve in the future.
Which came first, the chicken or the dinosaur?
For an beast to be an actual "dinosaur", it must belong to a group of animals known past scientists as Dinosauria. These all descended from a common ancestor shared by Triceratops and modern birds.
Other than birds, Dinosauria doesn't include whatsoever living creature. So for a dinosaur to re-evolve in the future, it would have to come from a bird.
Dinosauria's extinct members included sauropods, stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, ornithopods, ceratopsians and not-bird theropods. Modern birds evolved from a pocket-sized group of theropods. However, since then much time has passed, this link is limited.
Specifically, birds take a very unlike collection of "genes". These are the aforementioned built-in "rules" your parents passed down to you that decide, for example, what color your eyes will be.
The more generations that pass between an ancestor and their descendant, the more than different their genes will be.
Even if it could happen, what would this take?
Think of how much a bird would need to change to look like Tyrannosaurus rex or Triceratops. A lot.
Dinosaurs had long tails with basic all along them. Birds' tails are stumpy and have been for more than than 100 million years. Information technology's unlikely this would ever be reversed.
Also, modern birds walk on their back legs just and (in almost cases) accept four toes and three "fingers" in their wings.
Compare that with Triceratops, which walked on all four limbs, had five fingers on its front anxiety (the inner 3 of which were weight-bearing) and 4 toes on its back feet.
It may non be impossible for birds to gain ii more fingers to have five similar Triceratops; some people with a condition called "polydactyly" accept more than than five fingers, only this is very rare.
There aren't really whatsoever situations where an extra finger (or 1 less) would be necessary for a bird's survival. Thus, there's footling to no gamble birds will evolve to change in this manner.
Even if birds did eventually kickoff to walk on all 4 limbs (legs and wings), they wouldn't move the same way a Triceratops did because the purpose of a bird's wings is very dissimilar to that of a Triceratops's legs.
Dinosaurs are history
Nosotros know from fossil discoveries that Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus had scaly skin roofing near of their bodies. Most modern birds have scaly feet, just none are scaly all over.
It's hard to imagine what would force any bird to naturally supervene upon its feathers with scales. Birds demand feathers to fly, to relieve energy (by staying warm) and to put on special displays to attract mates.
Triceratops did have a "pecker" at the forepart of its mouth, but this evolved completely separately to the beaks of birds and had two extra basic — something no living animal has.
What'south more than, behind its beak and jaws, Triceratops had rows of teeth. While some birds such as geese have spiky beaks. No bird in the by 66 million years has ever had teeth.
Considering these huge differences, information technology's actually unlikely birds will ever evolve to look more similar their extinct dinosaur relatives. And no extinct dinosaur will ever come back to life either — except maybe in movies!
Source: https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-could-dinosaurs-evolve-back-into-existence-148623
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