The most recent common ancestor of all living birds lived after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event
the verdict
REFUTED
the evidence says no
confidence 10/100
Multiple genomic and paleontological studies refute the claim that the most recent common ancestor of all living birds lived after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, instead pointing to a Cretaceous origin for modern avian lineages.
Evidence against · 2
New fossils imply a deeper origin of modern birds in the Mesozoic.
2025 · cited by 0
Recent reviews of paleontological and genomic data indicate that the major lineages of modern birds originated during the Cretaceous period rather than exclusively after the K-Pg boundary [9].
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More against · 1
Strong mitochondrial DNA support for a Cretaceous origin of modern avian lineages.
2008 · cited by 0
Comprehensive molecular dating and relaxed clock analyses strongly support a Cretaceous origin for modern avian lineages, contradicting the hypothesis that the common ancestor of all living birds lived entirely after the extinction event [11].