Study: Modern Birds Impacted By Asteroid That Wiped Out Dinosaurs
DENVER (CBS4)- A scientist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science is part of a team which has discovered what an ancient asteroid impact means for modern day birds.
Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid hit the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs.
Birds that lived in trees became extinct as well, because the asteroid's impact destroyed the forests.
New research shows that the only birds to survive the mass extinction lived on the ground. That means that all birds alive today descended from those that didn't fly.
Tyler Lyson, a paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, helped write that study.
He says he's excited to share this information with visitors because it answers questions about the past and sheds new light on the future.
"I think we can learn from this because this is sort of an unintended consequence," said Lyson. "One of the consequences of wiping out the forest is that any animal that lives in the forest is going to be hard hit. Today, there are a lot of things going on in various countries and even here in the US where ecosystems are being hit quite hard."
The new research proves that scientists are constantly discovering new information about the past that impacts modern history.
