Dinosaurs: Enantiornis

1. Scientists believe Enantiornis resembled what type of living bird?

Flamingo

Penguin

Parrot

Turkey-vulture

2. Enantiornis had this special kind of bone, which is not found in the early bird Archaeopteryx.

Ulna

Pygostyle

Gastrolith

Stapes

3. Ichthyornis looked much like a gull, with this obvious exception.

It had scaly skin

It had claws on its wings

It lacked flight feathers

It had teeth

4. Hesperornis was a flightless diving bird of the Cretaceous Period. It grew to about this size.

3 feet (0.9 metres)

6 feet (1.8 metres)

12 feet (3.7 metres)

33 feet (10 metres)

5. Many birds died during the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Some scientists think this percentage of bird species may have become extinct.

25 percent

60 percent

90 percent

100 percent

6. Scientists use this name to refer to the group also known as modern birds.

Enantiornithines

Neornithes

Ratites

Passeriformes

7. Scientists are not sure why some modern birds survived the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Proposed explanations include which of the following?

The remarkable singing ability of modern birds enabled them to lure surviving animals into ambush, helping them to find food

Modern birds were already kept as pets by cavemen, who continued to provide them with birdseed

Many modern birds may have lived in freshwater areas, where fewer animals became extinct

All of the above

8. More than half of living bird species are perching birds, many of which weigh less than which of the following?

1/1000 ounce (0.03 gram)

1 ounce (28 grams)

1 pound (454 grams)

1,000 pounds (454 kilograms)

9. True or false. Birds have spent more time living in the Age of Mammals than they did living in the Age of Dinosaurs.

True

False

10. True or false. Enantiornis was an ancestor of modern birds.

True

False