Shedding Light on the Dinosaur-Bird Connection

What is a dinosaur that still lives among us today?

• a Sinornithosaurus

• an Archaeopteryx

• a bird

• a reptile

What does the author compare to living birds in this text?

• non-bird theropods

• living reptiles

• huge herbivores with small heads

• extinct birds

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.1

CCSS.RL.7.1

Read this sentence from the text.

"Based on the evidence of shared characteristics, scientists have concluded that birds are a type of theropod dinosaur."

What is a piece of skeletal evidence that supports the conclusion that birds are a type of theropod dinosaur?

• Birds brood their nests, just as non-bird theropod dinosaurs did.

• Feathers may have been used by non-bird dinosaurs in some of the ways that birds use their feathers today.

• The cerebrum in non-bird dinosaurs closely related to birds was very large.

• Birds and non-bird theropod dinosaurs have a hole in their hipbone.

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.1

CCSS.W.7.1B

CCSS.W.7.9A

Read this sentence from the text.

"Based on the evidence of shared characteristics, scientists have concluded that birds are a type of theropod dinosaur."

What is a piece of behavioral evidence that supports the conclusion that birds are a type of theropod dinosaur?

• Birds brood their nests, just as non-bird theropod dinosaurs did.

• The cerebrum in non-bird dinosaurs closely related to birds was very large.

• Birds and non-bird theropod dinosaurs have a hole in their hipbone.

• Birds and non-bird theropod dinosaurs have hollow bones.

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.1

CCSS.RL.7.1

What is the main idea of this text?

• The behavior of animals that have been extinct for a long time cannot be observed, and their DNA has been destroyed.

• Feathers were once thought to have evolved for flight, but now scientists think feathers may have originally served other purposes.

• Skeletal and behavioral evidence show that birds are dinosaurs, and brain evidence supports this conclusion.

• Scientists are using technology to reconstruct the inside of fossilized skulls and learn more about dinosaur brains.

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

What does the word "evolution" mean?

• a sudden and unexpected increase in size or amount

• a sudden and unexpected decrease in size or amount

• change that takes a day or two to happen

• change that happens over many generations

Tags

CCSS.L.7.6

CCSS.RI.7.4

Choose the answer that best completes the sentence.

Bigger brains in primates prepared the way for them to walk on two legs. __________, bigger brains in dinosaurs prepared the way for flight.

• otherwise

• similarly

• for instance

• in particular