How did birds and flight evolve among dinosaurs?
Since the discovery of feathers on dinosaurs in the 1990s, researchers have wondered, what were feathers doing on dinosaurs that didn't fly? How did birds and flight originate from these animals?
Recent discoveries in China of four-winged, gliding raptors and giant feathered tyrannosaurs that lived from 160 to 125 million years ago help explain how it all happened. Dinosaurs Take Wing: An Exhibition on the Origin of Flight in Birds presents feathery fossils that have never been exhibited in the U.S. and bring to life these ancient creatures through colorful models and illustrations.
Birds are dinosaurs. This has been established over the last two decades by overwhelming fossil evidence from China and elsewhere. But how exactly birds, feathers, and flight evolved among dinosaurs is a story that has yet to be told. This exhibition will present the latest thinking on how this complex process took place and the fossils that make the story clear. Many of these creatures are in an exquisite state, preserving bone, feathers, skin, even color. In addition to these extraordinary specimens, the exhibition centerpiece will be life-size models of two newly discovered tyrannosaurs engaged in a feathery courtship display.
Children marvel over dinosaurs and you will too when you see this exhibition. Take your guests back to prehistoric times with Dinosaurs Take Wing. Contact EDG today to learn more about this exhibition!
Organized with Science Visualization and the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, China
