Animals

Let’s learn about why turkeys are dinosaurs

All modern birds evolved from meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods

a crowd of turkeys peer around in random directions

Though not as fearsome as their distant T. rex cousins, turkeys are dinosaurs, too.

Nick David/Getty Images

By Maria Temming

Here’s a fun fact for the Thanksgiving dinner table: Did you know that all modern birds, including turkeys, are dinosaurs?

Today’s feathered flyers descended from a group of meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods. That group also included famous hunters like Tyrannosaurus rex — although birds evolved from T. rex’s much smaller relatives. Birds first emerged about 150 million years ago, in the Jurassic Period. And they’re the only dinosaurs to have survived a mass extinction event 66 million years ago.

So if you celebrate Thanksgiving, you’re not just tucking into a turkey. You’re digging into a dinosaur. Happy Reverse Jurassic Park Day, everyone!

Want to know more? We’ve got some stories to get you started:

This ancient bird rocked a head like a T. rex This bird from 120 million years ago had a head like a dinosaur and a body more like today’s birds. (6/12/2023) Readability: 7.6

Early dinosaurs may have laid soft-shelled eggs Scientists for the first time have turned up evidence of fossils from soft-shelled dinosaur eggs. This has scientists rethinking how dinosaur eggs evolved. (8/3/2020) Readability: 7.8

These fuzz-covered flying reptiles had catlike whiskers The dinosaurs in Jurassic World may be as smooth as any modern-day lizard, but real dinos would have looked much different. Many were covered in protofeathers. (2/4/2019) Readability: 7.9

Birds’ small size, diverse diets or ability to fly might explain why they’re the only surviving dinosaurs.

Explore more

Scientists Say: Dinosaur

Scientists Say: Jurassic

Explainer: How a fossil forms

Let’s learn about dinosaur extinction

This extinct bird boasted dinosaur-like teeth

Weird new dino looked more like a duck

Hefty dinosaurs had a trick for sitting on eggs safely

Dinosaur tail preserved in amber — feathers and all

Defining a dinosaur is now far harder

Scientists are rethinking the dinosaur family tree

How to tell if a T. rex is expecting

T. rex pulverized bones with an incredible amount of force

Activities

Word find

Want to learn more about the modern dinosaurs all around you? Go birding! A few apps can help you recognize the birds in your area. To identify bird species with Merlin Bird ID, just answer a few questions, record a sound clip or snap a picture. The Audubon Bird Guide likewise helps users identify birds and share their observations.

Power Words

More About Power Words

birds: Warm-blooded animals with wings that first showed up during the time of the dinosaurs. Birds are jacketed in feathers and produce young from the eggs they deposit in some sort of nest. Most birds fly, but throughout history there have been the occasional species that don’t.

dinosaur: A term that means terrible lizard. These reptiles emerged around 243 million years ago. All descended from egg-laying reptiles known as archosaurs. Their descendants eventually split into two lines. For many decades, they have been distinguished by their hips. The lizard-hipped line are believed to have led to the saurischians, such as two-footed theropods like T. rex and the lumbering four-footed Apatosaurus. A second line of so-called bird-hipped, or ornithischian dinosaurs, appears to have led to a widely differing group of animals that included the stegosaurs and duckbilled dinosaurs. Many large dinosaurs died out around 66 million years ago. But some saurischians lived on. They are now the birds we see today (and who have now evolved that so-called “bird-hipped” pelvis).

extinction: The permanent loss of a species, family or larger group of organisms.

Jurassic: Lasting from about 200 million to 145.5 million years ago, it’s the middle period of the Mesozoic Era. This was a time when dinosaurs were the dominant form of life on land.

theropod: A usually meat-eating dinosaur that belonged to a group whose members are typically bipedal (walk on two legs). They range from small and delicately built to very large.

Tyrannosaurus rex: A top-predator dinosaur that roamed Earth during the late Cretaceous period. Adults could be 12 meters (40 feet) long.

About Maria Temming

Maria Temming is the Assistant Managing Editor at Science News Explores. She has bachelor's degrees in physics and English, and a master's in science writing.

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