The discovery of the early raptor Buitreraptor may resolve one puzzle of the dinosaur-bird relationship. The late-Jurassic “first bird,” Archaeopteryx, seems closely related to dromaeosaurids, yet those animals appear to have lived later, in the Cretaceous. The realization that raptors were around much earlier makes the dinosaur-bird link even clearer.

John Davis
Jackson, Miss
.