Hacker News Reader

Comment by truculent | Hacker News Reader

“Like an avian dinosaur” would be the modern terminology, I believe

(Edited:) Yes, but that’s just a long-winded way saying ”like a bird”. This dinosaur was not itself a bird because birds evolved only after the K–Pg event.

>the dinosaurs that survived K–Pg were not avian

Doesn't the term "avian dinosaur" in some sense mean "survived K-Pg"?

Yeah, but not the other way around. But there’s semantic ambiguity with the term “avian” – I used it to mean “capable of flight” but it can also mean “member of the clade Aves”. The dinos that survived were not flying at that time , and not all survivors were in Aves; flight evolved in Aves only after K–Pg and other dinos that survived went extinct later.

(I edited my original comment to be more precise)

That does not jibe with my reading. Which is that there were certainly flightless birds that survived K-Pg (Palaeognathae, ostrich ancestors) and the dominant flying dinosaurs (Enantiornithes) died off, but Neognathae survived and was flight-capable.

Penguins, ostriches, and emus are definitely birds, definitely avian, and definitely not capable of flight (under their own power).

But not exclusively. There were pre-K-Pg avians, too.

“Avian” or “Avian dinosaur” just means a particular branch of dinosaur that gave rise to modern birds. As opposed to “non-avian dinosaurs”.

Sure, there would necessarily have to be pre-K-Pg avians for them to have been the only ones that survived. I just don't see how one could characterize surviving dinosaurs as non-avian in any way, but they apparently meant non-flying.

Perhaps, yes. My answer was intended as a somewhat tongue-in-cheek response :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com