Los Angeles Times

Asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs also shaped the evolution of birds

Scientists studying plant life around the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs have made a surprising discovery: Out of all the birds living at the time, only the ground-dwelling species survived.

The finding, described in the journal Current Biology, reveals how the avian winners and losers in the wake of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event shaped the evolution of all the birds we see today.

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