Bird dinosaur would have 'fallen off' twigs
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An ancient flying reptile that is believed to have been the forerunner of modern birds would not have been capable of perching in a tree, according to experts at Germany's top dinosaur museum.
In research published on Thursday, they showed that the creature, Archaeopteryx, had feet like a dinosaur. Modern birds have a backwards-pointing toe that enables their claws to grip twigs.
The authors, led by palaeo-ornithologist Gerald Mayr of the Senckenberg Research Institute, wrote in the US journal Science that the finding was fresh proof that Archaeopteryx was related to a family of meat-eating dinosaurs, the theropods.
An ancient flying reptile that is believed to have been the forerunner of modern birds would not have been capable of perching in a tree, according to experts at Germany's top dinosaur museum.In research published on Thursday, they showed that the creature, Archaeopteryx, had feet like a dinosaur. Modern birds have a backwards-pointing toe that enables their claws to grip twigs.
The authors, led by palaeo-ornithologist Gerald Mayr of the Senckenberg Research Institute, wrote in the US journal Science that the finding was fresh proof that Archaeopteryx was related to a family of meat-eating dinosaurs, the theropods.
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