From Scaly to Fluffy: the Dinosaurian Ancestry of Birds, Dr. Francois Therrien

Birds are dinosaurs the same way that humans are mammals. Details of their skeletons reveal that birds are a type of small meat-eating dinosaurs closely related to Velociraptor of Jurassic Park fame. For a long time, it was believed that the key characteristic that differentiated birds from other dinosaurs was the presence of feathers: dinosaurs were thought to have been scaly reptiles whereas birds were fluffy. However, numerous fossil discoveries made over the past 30 years have shown not only that many meat-eating dinosaurs were covered with feathers, but also that several had wings, and some could even fly! These discoveries allow paleontologists to attempt to resolve the mystery of how birds got their wings and learned to fly.

In his presentation, Dr. François Therrien will explain how the discovery of the first North American feathered dinosaurs in Alberta changes our understanding of the origin of wings in the dinosaurian ancestors of birds and provides insight into the purpose for which wings first evolved.

Bio:
Dr. François Therrien is the Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. He holds a B.Sc. in Geology from the Université de Montréal, a Master’s degree in Geosciences from the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in Functional Anatomy & Evolution from the Johns Hopkins University – School of Medicine.

For his Master’s degree, François studied the sedimentology and paleosols of the Late Triassic Chinle Formation of Arizona and New Mexico in order to reconstruct the paleoenvironments in which the earliest North American dinosaurs lived. For his Ph.D., he traveled to Romania to study the sedimentology and paleosols of dinosaur-bearing rock formations in order to reconstruct the paleoenvironments that prevailed in Transylvania just before the extinction of the dinosaurs.

François’ primary research interests focus on the study of dinosaur behavior, particularly the feeding behavior and bite force of extinct predators, as well as the study of faunal and environmental changes that occurred at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. Over the years, he has conducted field research in Canada, the USA, Romania, and Mongolia.

François was involved in the discovery and study of the first feathered dinosaurs from North America and, more recently, the description of a young tyrannosaur preserving the remains of two baby dinosaurs in its stomach, evidence of its last meal.

https://tyrrellmuseum.com/research

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