Popular Science

Modern birds might have dinosaur lungs to thank for their existence

Researchers found the evidence of lungs for the first time in an avian dinosaur fossil.
bird flying

For the first time, researchers found the presence of what they believe to be lung tissue in an avian dinosaur fossil.

Birds: They’re just like us. Except their lungs are small in comparison to their body size (much smaller than ours, by this metric) and they have a set of air sacs, nine in total, that run down the sides of their bodies.

A newly described fossil found in China shows that birds evolved one of these notable that killed the dinosaurs and continue to evolve into modern birds.

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