Woollard said that they know that birds are the direct descendants of dinosaurs, as proven by an unbroken line of fossils that tracks the evolution of the lineage from creatures like velociraptor or T-Rex through to the birds flying around today.

She said that the most famous of these is the Archaeopteryx, a fossil that clearly shows the transition between feathered dinosaurs and modern birds.

Wollard said that this evolution implies that buried deep inside the DNA of today's birds are switched-off genes that control dinosaur-like traits.

Source: ANI