Page 143 - The Dinosaur Book and Other Wonders of the Prehistoric World (DK-Smithsonian)
P. 143
To aid flight, the wing
feathers were asymmetrical,
like those of modern birds.
Hesperornis
Concornis was Confuciusornis
about the same size
as a starling, but not as
agile in the air.
A male Confuciusornis
had two long tail
streamers.
Concornis Hesperornis was
about 6 ft (1.8 m) long.
Iberomesornis
The wings of this
enormous toothed seabird
were reduced to tiny
stumps, so it could not fly.
Strong claws and a Hesperornis
back-pointing toe on each swam using its
foot allowed Iberomesornis large webbed feet.
to perch on branches.
became more specialized for flight, with stronger 70 million years ago, many modern-type birds
skeletons to resist flight stresses. Many still had were flying over the heads of the giant dinosaurs.
small teeth, especially fish-eating seabirds like Some birds, including Patagopteryx, had
Ichthyornis, which lived about 90 million years given up flight to live like ostriches, while the
ago. But others had abandoned them in favor flightless Hesperornis hunted underwater like
of beaks, and by the late Cretaceous, about a giant cormorant. 141
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