To organize this text, the author has divided it into sections. One of the sections has the subheading "Living Dinosaurs." What does the author contrast with a bird in this section?
an Apatosaurus
a T. rex
a Sinornithosaurus
a Citipati
The author does not contrast a bird with any of these dinosaurs in the "Living Dinosaurs" section.
To organize this text, the author has divided it into sections. One of the sections has the subheading "Living Dinosaurs." What does the author contrast with a bird in this section?
an Apatosaurus
a T. rex
a Sinornithosaurus
a Citipati
3
The skeletons of birds and non-bird theropods are similar.
What information in the text supports this claim?
The skeletons of birds and non-bird theropods both include wishbones.
The skeletons of birds and non-bird theropods both have tiny skulls.
Many skeletons of birds and non-bird theropods have been found in the Gobi Desert.
Scientists have used computed tomography scans to create endocasts of the skeletons of non-bird theropods.
4
Read this sentence from the text.
“In fact, birds and T. rex are close relatives.”
Based on the information in the text, what is another dinosaur that is probably a close relative of birds?
Apatosaurus
Stegosaurus
Citipati
Triceratops
5
What is the main idea of this text?
Some dinosaurs, such as Apatosaurus, were huge herbivores with small heads and long tails.
Scientists can learn about extinct dinosaurs by studying fossilized teeth, footprints, and dung.
Scientists are using endocasts to learn about the volume and shape of dinosaurs' brains.
Based on a variety of evidence, scientists have concluded that birds are a type of dinosaur.
6
Read these sentences from the text.
“When paleontologists compare a skeleton of a living bird to the fossilized skeleton of a non-bird theropod, like Sinornithosaurus, they see many similarities. They both have a hole in the hipbone, a feature that distinguishes most dinosaurs from all other animals. This feature allows an animal to stand erect, with its legs directly beneath its body. All theropod dinosaurs, including birds, have a furcula, also known as a wishbone. Another shared characteristic is the presence of hollow bones.”
What does the word “characteristic” mean here?
quality or trait
opinion or belief
fossil or skeleton
animal or dinosaur
7
Read these sentences from the text.
“Feathers were once thought to have evolved for flight. The discovery of more and more non-flying dinosaurs with feathers disproved that explanation. For these dinosaurs, feathers may have served other functions, like gliding, insulation, protection, and display.”
What word or phrase could replace "like" in the last sentence without changing the sentence's meaning?
after
never
instead of
such as
8
By examining different kinds of evidence, scientists saw that birds and non-bird dinosaurs share many features. One kind of evidence that scientists examined was skeletal evidence. What was another kind of evidence they examined?
Answer
9
What is a feature shared by birds and non-bird dinosaurs?
Answer
10
Imagine that scientists have just discovered a non-bird dinosaur skeleton. They want to know whether the dinosaur was closely related to birds. What features in the skeleton might help them decide? Support your answer with information from the text.
Answer
4. Based on the information in the text, what is another dinosaur that is probably a close relative of birds?
Citipati
5. What is the main idea of this text?
Based on the variety of evidence, scientists have concluded that birds are a type of dinosaur.
6. What does the word “characteristic” mean here?
quality or trait
7. What word or phrase could replace "like" in the last sentence without changing the sentence's meaning?
such as
8. By examining different kinds of evidence, scientists saw that birds and non-bird dinosaurs share many features. One kind of evidence that scientists examined was skeletal evidence. What was another kind of evidence they examined?
Feather evidence.
9. What is a feature shared by birds and non-bird dinosaurs?
They both have hollow bones.
10. Imagine that scientists have just discovered a non-bird dinosaur skeleton. They want to know whether the dinosaur was closely related to birds. What features in the skeleton might help them decide? Support your answer with information from the text.
Features such as having a furcula (wishbone), a hole in their hipbone for standing erect, and possibly having feather-like structures would help scientists determine if the non-bird dinosaur was closely related to birds. As mentioned in the text, these are some of the characteristics that are shared by both birds and non-bird dinosaurs, and that help scientists understand their evolutionary relationships.