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

  1. evolutionary
  2. phylogenetic
  3. lizards
  4. birds
  5. specifically
  6. record
  7. skeleton
  8. 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

  1. anatomical
  2. anatomy
  3. apply
  4. birds
  5. bracketing
  6. called
  7. case
  8. closely
  9. closest
  10. cousins
  11. crocodilians
  12. data
  13. descendants
  14. dinosaur
  15. dinosaurs
  16. direct
  17. evolutionary
  18. fancy
  19. fossil
  20. fossilized
  21. generally
  22. instance
  23. living
  24. lizards
  25. lungs
  26. method
  27. modern
  28. phylogenetic
  29. reconstruct
  30. record
  31. relatives
  32. remains
  33. resembles
  34. skeleton
  35. specific
  36. specifically
  37. study
  38. tree
  39. turtles