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"  How did the ancient ancestors of modern birds survive the cataclysm that wiped out the dinosaurs? They got small. According to a study in the journal Science last week, the key to how giant dinosaurs evolved into relatively tiny birds is shrinkage. Specifically, a branch of therapod dinosaurs\u2014the group that includes theTyrannosaurus and Velociraptor, and is most closely related to today&amp;#039;s birds\u2014miniaturized starting about 200 million years ago, with their skeletons changing four times faster than other dinosaurs. To study exactly how birds descended from dinosaurs, the study&amp;#039;s authors, led by Michael S. Y. Lee from the University of Adelaide in Australia, plugged more than 1500 data points describing therapod characteristics into Bayesian Evolutionary Analysis Sampling Tree (BEAST) software. The program, which has been used to study virus family trees, showed definite shrinking in the specific therapods that would become birds. Because they shrank quickly, evolving faster than their non-bird-ancestor therapod counterparts, they were able to adapt better, developing skills like tree-climbing and flying that most likely helped them to avoid extinction.  (Click to Enlarge) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a11027/how-dinos-became-birds-shrinkage-17058624/>