Okay, but what makes a bird… a bird? Hint: Dinosaurs!

E14. What do feathers, toothless beaks, and a 66-million-year-old asteroid have in common. Paleontologist Dr. Daniel Field, University of Cambridge, joins Scott to unpack how birds evolved from dinosaurs, and why defining "bird" is trickier than you think.In this episode you'll hear about:Why Archaeopteryx had half the features of a modern bird and lacked the other half, and what that tells us about 150 million years of evolutionThe "Wonderchicken," a tiny fossil from the border of Belgium and the Netherlands that rewrote what we know about birds surviving the asteroid impactHow micro CT scanning lets scientists digitally peer inside rocks to study fossils at micron scale without ever touching themListen wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:Great Spotted Kiwi, William V. Ward, ML810Southern Cassowary, Linda Macaulay, ML57219Elegant Trogon, David L. Ross, Jr., ML199536Green Heron,, Bob McGuire, ML229117Asteriornis imagery and video courtesy of Dr. Daniel Field, University of Cambridge.