article_snippet.sent: The lineage of huge meat-eating dinosaurs that transformed into agile flying birds were able to survive because The lineage of huge meat-eating dinosaurs that transformed into agile flying birds shrank over the course of 50 million years.
article_snippet.sent: This is the conclusion scientists came to after constructing a detailed family tree of dinosaurs and the conclusion scientists bird descendants, mapping the unlikely transformation.
article_snippet.sent: a detailed family tree of dinosaurs and their bird descendants showed that the branch of theropod dinosaurs, which gave rise to modern birds, were the only dinosaurs that kept getting smaller.
article_snippet.sent: The lineage of huge meat-eating dinosaurs that transformed into agile flying birds were able to survive because The lineage of huge meat-eating dinosaurs that transformed into agile flying birds shrank over 50 million years.
article_snippet.sent: This is the conclusion scientists came to after constructing a detailed family tree of dinosaurs and the conclusion scientists bird descendants, mapping the conclusion scientists unlikely transformation .
article_snippet.sent: These bird ancestors also evolved new adaptations, such as feathers, wishbones and wings, four times faster than other dinosaurs,' said co-author Darren Naish, a palaeontologist at the University of Southampton.
article_snippet.sent: Lead author Associate Professor Michael Lee, from the University of Adelaide, said: 'Birds evolved through a unique phase of sustained miniaturisation in dinosaurs.'
article_snippet.sent: 'Being smaller and lighter in the land of giants, with rapidly evolving anatomical adaptations, provided These bird ancestors with new ecological opportunities, such as the ability to climb trees, glide and fly.
article_snippet.sent: Ultimately, this evolutionary flexibility helped birds survive the deadly meteorite impact which killed off all birds dinosaurian cousins.'