A fossil replica of a bird-like creature. Its feathered wings are outstretched and its neck is bent back into an awkward position.

Darren: So Archaeopteryx was clearly recognized as a bird when it was discovered, mainly because of the clear wings with flight feathers, asymmetric feathers, on it. 

Close up of the wings. They are outlined with a white overlay.

Darren: And so this was clearly a flying reptile and provided the link between reptiles and birds. So modern birds and theropod dinosaurs share a lot of features. 

Birds fly together in a large group.

Darren: And it’s increasingly recognized that dinosaurs, rather than being these cold-blooded, slow-moving animals that we used to think of them as, were really probably endothermic, meaning warm-blooded, they have good parental care, they had a lot of colourful feathers on them. And they had a lot of displays. They probably made calls in a lot of mating displays and so forth. All those traits are very similar to modern birds. 

A grey-haired man in a green jacket looks at the camera.

Darren: My name is Darren Irwin. I’m a professor here at the UBC Biodiversity Research Centre. And I study bird speciation, so how one species gradually becomes two over time.