Evolution of the sense of smell in dinosaurs and birds
Evolution of olfaction across the dinosaurian transition to birds. Everyone knows birds aren’t exactly bloodhounds. The party line has been that the evolution of flight in birds favored vision and balance over olfaction, and so the sense of smell was reduced. A new study overturns that perception, showing that as birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs their sense of smell was maintained and actually increased in basal birds.(Zelenitsky, D. K., F. Therrien, R. C. Ridgely, A. R. McGee, and L. M. Witmer. 2011. Evolution of olfaction in non-avian theropod dinosaurs and birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.)