Special Exhibition
Liaoning Diorama
Get ready to travel back in time. Your voyage will take you to a part of eastern Asia as it looked 130 million years ago. At the time, this region—now in the Chinese province of Liaoning—was warm and dry
Birds are Dinosaurs
Not all dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago. One group survived, and we see their descendents every day. We call them birds. Paleontologists recognized this link over 125 years ago, and have been investigating it ever since. Discoveries have included shared skeletal features like hollow bones and hips that allow walking upright, and fossils of feathers and nesting grounds. New finds continue to fill in the bird family tree and shed light on ancient dinosaur behavior.
Support for the development of Science Topics was generously provided by Sidney and Helaine Lerner, GRACE Communications Foundation.
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Special ExhbitionsBirds: Living Dinosaurs
This section of the exhibition examined the links between dinosaurs and birds, the continued search for more evidence to support this link, and the origin of feathers.
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Permanent ExhibitionDinosaur Mummy
The Museum’s dinosaur mummy is a fossilized imprint of the carcass of a duck-billed dinosaur. One of the most complete pieces of Mesozoic dinosaur remains ever found, this fossil represents one of the greatest discoveries in the history of paleontology.
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ResearchArchaeopteryx Was Not Very Bird-like Archaeopteryx Lacked Rapid Bone Growth, The Hallmark Of Birds
First found in Germany in the 1860's and dating to 150 million years ago, Archaeopteryx has long been considered the iconic first bird. But microscopic imaging of bone structure published in PLoS One shows that this famously feathered fossil grew much slower than living birds and more like non-avian dinosaurs.
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ActivityBuried Bones
In this activity, you and a friend will create two make-believe dig sites by burying chicken bones in plaster of Paris - a powder that hardens when wet. Then you'll try to excavate (dig out) the "fossils."
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VideoAre Any Dinosaurs Still Alive Today?
In an evolutionary sense, birds are a living group of dinosaurs because they descended from the common ancestor of all dinosaurs. Other than birds, however, there is no scientific evidence that any dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, or Triceratops, are still alive.
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VideoWhat Was Dinosaur Skin Like?
Reptile skin is a complex system of scales separated by flexible joints, which are identical to scales, except thinner. In birds, the only living group of dinosaurs, the scales are modified into feathers, except around the feet and beak.
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VideoHow Did All Dinosaurs Except Birds Go Extinct?
The extinction of non-avian dinosaurs except birds at the end of the Cretaceous has intrigued paleontologists for more than a century.
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Blog PostNewly Discovered Dinosaur Implies Greater Prevalence of Feathers
A new species of feathered dinosaur discovered in southern Germany is further changing the perception of how predatory dinosaurs looked. The fossil of Sciurumimus albersdoerferi,which lived about 150 million years ago, provides the first evidence of feathered theropod dinosaurs that are not closely related to birds.
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Special ExhibitionBambiraptor and Birds
The idea that birds are living dinosaurs has been accepted by most paleontologists for some time. But the discovery ofBambiraptor has led to some intriguing new ideas about the strong links between birds and dinosaurs. Bambiraptorwas probably covered in feathers and its skeleton was almost identical to that of a modern bird.
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EssayExplore the Family Tree of Birds
Developed for the Seminars on Science online course The Link Between Dinosaurs and Birds, Dr. Mark Norell investigates the family tree of birds, focusing on early species like Archaeopteryx and Apsaravis.
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ActivityThump, Thump, Thump ... How Dinosaurs Moved
Want to see firsthand how a dinosaur moved? Observe a bird as it walks along the sidewalk or in your backyard. Then challenge a friend to a "push-up" race—dinosaur versus crocodile.