Pigeons (and all other birds) are a direct descendant of the group of dinosaurs that included the T. rex. This may not come as too big of a shock to some; but to me it’s a really cool fact. Theropod dinosaurs never truly went extinct—they just evolved into the birds we see today.
We’re in a period of time that our paleontologists refer to as the “Dinosaur Renaissance.” This technically began in the 1960s with the discovery of Deinonychus (which is a small, predatory dinosaur that lived about 115mya)! The discovery of Deinonychus in 1964 by paleontologist John Ostrom in Montana, USA completely transformed our understanding of dinosaurs.
This discovery was the catalyst to the "Dinosaur Renaissance" as I mentioned, as it shifted the scientific consensus from dinosaurs being slow, sluggish, and cold-blooded reptiles to highly agile, active, and bird-like animals.
When I tell you this single discovery completely upended the way we think about dinosaurs, I’m not kidding!
Before this discovery, dinosaurs were thought of as slow, lumbering, cold-blooded reptiles. However, Deinonychus had a sleek, horizontal posture and large raptorial claws, implying an active lifestyle that would have required a warm-blooded (endothermic) metabolism to sustain its energy.
We were also able to more confidently link the origin of birds to dinosaurs thanks to this!! Because by analyzing the wrist and arm bones of Deinonychus, Ostrom noticed striking similarities to modern birds and revived the theory that birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs. Prior to this, we only had the fossil of Archaeopteryx that was used as the “missing link,” between dinosaurs and birds!
The animal’s anatomy and cursorial (running) adaptations pointed to excellent eyesight, high coordination, and complex brain power. These are all adaptations that we see today in mostly every single species of bird!
Ultimately, these findings helped popularize dinosaurs as complex, dynamic creatures rather than evolutionary failures. Its anatomical traits also heavily inspired the famous "raptors" in the Jurassic Park franchise, though the movie used a larger scale than the real-life Deinonychus.
There’s so much more I want to talk about when it comes to this topic!! But I’ll leave you all with this information for now, so I don’t bore everyone!
