When Birds Had Teeth

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to http://to.pbs.org/DonateEons ↓ More info below ↓ Check out ReInventors:    / channel   Experts are still arguing over whether Archaeopteryx was a true bird, or a paravian dinosaur, or some other kind of dino. But regardless of what side you’re on, how did this fascinating, bird-like animal relate to today’s birds? It turns out its teeth were a clue that this story goes all the way back to what we now call the non-avian dinosaurs. Thanks to Ceri Thomas for the excellent Longipteryx reconstruction. Check out more of Ceri's paleoart at   / alphynix   and http://nixillustration.com Produced for PBS Digital Studios. Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible: Katie Fichtner, Aldo Espinosa Zúñiga, Kelby Reid, Steph Summerfield, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, Svetlana Pylaeva, Colin Sylvester, Philip Slingerland, John Vanek, Jose Garcia, Noah offitzer, Eric Vonk, Tony Wamsley, Henrik Peteri, Jonathan Wright, Wilco Verweij, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Brad Nicholls, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Elysha Nygård, Jeff Graham, Maria Humphrey, Nathan Paskett, Connor Jensen, Ehit Dinesh Agarwal, Sapjes, Daisuke Goto, Zachary Winkler, Hubert Rady, Yuntao Zhou, Gregory Kintz, Tyson Cleary, Chandler Bass, Maly Lor, Joao Ascensao, Tsee Lee, Sarah Fritts, Ruben Winter, Ron Harvey Jr, Joshua Mitchell, Johnny Li, Jacob Gerke, Katie M Vasilescu, Brandon Burke, Alex Yan If you'd like to support the channel, head over to   / eons   and pledge for some cool rewards! Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet? Facebook -   / eonsshow   Twitter -   / eonsshow   Instagram -   / eonsshow   References: doi:10.2475/ajs.s3-14.83.337 https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitst... Bakker RT. 1986. The Dinosaur Heresies. Zebra Books, New York. 481 pp. ISBN: 0806522607 https://paleoglot.org/files/Ji&Ji_96.pdf doi:10.1038/scientificamericandinosaurs0514-76 Martyniuk, MP. 2012. A Field Guide to Mesozoic Birds and Other Winged DInosaurs. Pan Aves, Vernon, NJ. 191 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-9885965-0-4 Baby enantiornithine: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2017.06.001 Enantiornithine wings: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomm... Baby dinosaur tail: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.10... https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrg.20018 https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JE001532 https://doi.org/10.1130/B25402.1 https://www.cell.com/current-biology/... https://www.cell.com/current-biology/... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...