The cataclysm
Dino-killing cosmic impact
A cosmic impact at the end of the Cretaceous that wiped out non-avian dinosaurs seems to have decimated primitive birds as well
Although birds survived the mass extinction that claimed their brethren, the rest of the dinosaurs, birds did not emerge unscathed, scientists now find. Apparently many ancient lineages of birds died off at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, researchers added. Nearly all the modern bird groups, from owls to penguins and so on, began to emerge within 15 million years after the rest of the dinosaurs went extinct. These birds are subtly but significantly different from many of the ancient lineages that existed before a cosmic impact at the end of the Cretaceous period about 65 million years ago wreaked havoc around the globe.
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