6.飞向蓝天的恐龙

Lesson Six

Dinosaurs Flying into the Blue Sky

1.When it comes to dinosaurs, people often think of fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex or heavy and slow Mamenchisaurus; when it comes to birds, people will naturally have a light pigeon or a colorful peacock in their minds.

2.The two seem irrelevant, but a large number of fossils discovered in recent years show that during the Mesozoic era, a branch of dinosaur evolved into flying birds after a long time of evolution.

3.As early as the 19th century, Huxley, an English scholar, noticed that dinosaurs and birds have many similarities in bone structure.

4.After studying a large number of fossils of dinosaurs and birds, scientists put forward that birds are not only related to dinosaurs, but also probably descendants of small dinosaurs.

5.According to this hypothesis, some dinosaurs are closely related to birds should have feathers, but no fossil evidence has been found.

6.At the end of the 20th century, Chinese scientists discovered dinosaur fossils with feathers for the first time in western Liaoning, which made researchers all over the world ecstatic.

7.The discovery in western Liaoning showed the world the evidence that some dinosaurs do have feathers, and painted the finishing touch on this picture painted by paleontologists.

8.How did dinosaurs fly to the blue sky?

9.Let’s cross time tunnel, visit the earth in Mesozoic era, and have a look at this evolution.

10.The first dinosaur on earth appeared about 240 million years ago.It was as big as a dog, and its hind legs were strong and able to support the whole body.

11.Tens of millions of years later, its offspring have developed into a huge family with various forms.

12.Some dinosaurs ran on two feet like their ancestors, while others walked on four feet.Some dinosaurs were tens of meters long and weighed tens of tons, while others were small and weighed only a few kilograms.

13.Some dinosaurs were ferocious carnivorous animals; some were gentle and lovely, and they fed on plants.

14.Among them, the bodies of some predatory dinosaurs gradually became smaller and were more like birds, characterized by hollow bones and light bodies, big head and quick action.Their forelegs were getting longer and longer, which could flap like bird wings.They have beautiful feathers grow on the surface of the body, no longer covered with scales or scutes.

15.Some species of them may migrate to trees to survive in order to avoid enemies or find food.

16.These arboreal dinosaurs jumped and landed among trees, and gradually gained the ability of gliding, and finally they were able to fly actively.

17.However, another view is that flying does not begin with arboreal life.

18.Some scientists speculated that a feathered dinosaur living on the ground learned to fly while running.

19.In any case, scientists believed that dinosaurs that could not fly eventually became favored birds.They flew into the blue sky and opened up a brand-new world of life.

20.Hundreds of millions of years ago, a feathered dinosaur separated from the same kind and flew into the blue sky, which evolved into a large family of birds today.

21.Scientists hope to fully reveal this historical process.

22.With the discovery of more and more related fossils, they are getting closer and closer to the realization of this wish.