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There are some birds even now that are "obviously" theropod dinosaurs (all birds are dinosaurs, but some are phenotypically closer to their ancestors than other
by Sharlin 3y ago
There are some birds even now that are "obviously" theropod dinosaurs (all birds are dinosaurs, but some are phenotypically closer to their ancestors than others). The sauropod lineage is truly dead though – birds are still their closest extant relatives, but the lineages diverged already in the late Triassic, ~230M years ago.
- ghaff 3y agoWith the benefit of hindsight, it's a bit surprising that the link between ostriches and raptors (first fossil 1923 I think) in particular wasn't more noted which, of course, would have implied some link between theropods and modern birds more generally. There was some evidence like feathers on some dinosaurs but thinking about dinosaurs didn't really start changing en-masse until the late 1980s.