re: Birds are the only surviving dinosaurs

Like I said, there’s more than enough key pieces of information. The skeletal structure is just visually striking.

We can also use molecular phylogenetic (trees built upon how closely similar different species are to one another based upon genetic similarities): LINK /

quote:

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“Most of the collagen sequence was obtained from protein and genome databases but we also needed to sequence some critical organisms, including modern alligator and modern ostrich, by mass spectrometry,” says Asara, director of the mass spectrometry core facility at BIDMC and instructor in pathology at HMS. “We determined that T. rex, in fact, grouped with birds — ostrich and chicken — better than any other organism that we studied. We also show that it groups better with birds than modern reptiles, such as alligators and green anole lizards.”

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