A Bird—or a Flying Dinosaur?

Have you ever heard of “the duck test?” It’s pretty complicated, so pay attention! It goes like this: if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, well, it’s probably a duck!

Let’s apply this test to a new study on a fossil known as Archaeopteryx. Now, this creature was first classified as a missing link. Then it was reclassified as a bird. Now it’s been re-reclassified again—as a flying dinosaur.

Well, the new study showed this creature could fly like a modern pheasant. It also had hollow bones, like modern birds, and feathers like a bird.

So if it flew like a bird, had hollow bones like a bird, and feathers like a bird, then maybe … it was a bird!

Dig Deeper

• If It Looked Like a Bird and Flew Like a Bird . . . It Must Be a Dinosaur!
• Archaeopteryx Has Flown the Coop