How birds survived the mass extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published June 9, 2026 at 12:04 PM EDT

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Birds are the only dinosaurs that survived the devastating asteroid impact 66 million years ago. The songbirds you see today are directly linked to the velociraptor, triceratops and T. rex.

Here & Now‘s Scott Tong speaks with Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist, about his new book “The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present,” which explains how birds evolved and survived the extinction event that wiped out so many other species.

The cover of "The Story of Birds" and author Steve Brusatte. (Courtesy of Mariner Books and Royal Society of Edinburgh)

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.