full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Emma Schachner: The secret weapon that let dinosaurs take over the planet
Unscramble the Blue Letters
So, how do we know what dinosaur lungs were even like, since all that remains of a dinosaur generally is its fossilized skeleton? The method that we use is called "extant ptghonieeylc bracketing." This is a fancy way of saying that we study the anatomy — splfcliceaiy in this case, the lungs and stkeloen — of the living descendants of dinosaurs on the ervaitlonouy tree. So we would look at the anatomy of bdris, who are the decirt descendants of dinosaurs, and we'd look at the anatomy of crocodilians, who are their closest living relatives, and then we would look at the anatomy of lairzds and turtles, who we can think of like their cousins. And then we apply these anatomical data to the fossil rcored, and then we can use that to reconstruct the lungs of dinosaurs. And in this specific instance, the skeleton of dinosaurs most closely resembles that of modern birds.
Open Cloze
So, how do we know what dinosaur lungs were even like, since all that remains of a dinosaur generally is its fossilized skeleton? The method that we use is called "extant ____________ bracketing." This is a fancy way of saying that we study the anatomy — ____________ in this case, the lungs and ________ — of the living descendants of dinosaurs on the ____________ tree. So we would look at the anatomy of _____, who are the ______ descendants of dinosaurs, and we'd look at the anatomy of crocodilians, who are their closest living relatives, and then we would look at the anatomy of _______ and turtles, who we can think of like their cousins. And then we apply these anatomical data to the fossil ______, and then we can use that to reconstruct the lungs of dinosaurs. And in this specific instance, the skeleton of dinosaurs most closely resembles that of modern birds.
Solution
- evolutionary
- phylogenetic
- lizards
- birds
- specifically
- record
- skeleton
- direct
Original Text
So, how do we know what dinosaur lungs were even like, since all that remains of a dinosaur generally is its fossilized skeleton? The method that we use is called "extant phylogenetic bracketing." This is a fancy way of saying that we study the anatomy — specifically in this case, the lungs and skeleton — of the living descendants of dinosaurs on the evolutionary tree. So we would look at the anatomy of birds, who are the direct descendants of dinosaurs, and we'd look at the anatomy of crocodilians, who are their closest living relatives, and then we would look at the anatomy of lizards and turtles, who we can think of like their cousins. And then we apply these anatomical data to the fossil record, and then we can use that to reconstruct the lungs of dinosaurs. And in this specific instance, the skeleton of dinosaurs most closely resembles that of modern birds.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
modern birds |
5 |
respiratory system |
5 |
forked ribs |
4 |
vertebral pneumaticity |
4 |
triassic period |
3 |
mammalian lung |
3 |
thin membrane |
3 |
million years |
2 |
story takes |
2 |
takes place |
2 |
spinal vertebral |
2 |
vertebral column |
2 |
thoracic ceiling |
2 |
top surface |
2 |
clue number |
2 |
lung tissue |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
collocation |
frequency |
story takes place |
2 |
spinal vertebral column |
2 |
Important Words
- anatomical
- anatomy
- apply
- birds
- bracketing
- called
- case
- closely
- closest
- cousins
- crocodilians
- data
- descendants
- dinosaur
- dinosaurs
- direct
- evolutionary
- fancy
- fossil
- fossilized
- generally
- instance
- living
- lizards
- lungs
- method
- modern
- phylogenetic
- reconstruct
- record
- relatives
- remains
- resembles
- skeleton
- specific
- specifically
- study
- tree
- turtles