As you might know, there have been discussions about birds being the 'modern dinosaurs'. Which birds have features that make them look like dinosaur, I’ve even heard about chickens being the modern T-Rex . And what birds would you consider as modern dinosaurs. For example, ostriches.
I consider cassowaries as a good example for what dinosaurs could've been like. So yeah, cassowaries are my real life Utahraptors. Other than those I don't really know any other bird speceis (that's not a ratite) that could be a good example for a real life counterpart for a dinosaur. This is a very interesting topic!
Secretary Bird. Aside from being able to fly, they are about as close in ecology and behaviour to a real life raptor you can get.
I have always found ground hornbills to look rather prehistoric; I would imagine that, if any small dinosaurs hunted in groups, they may have done so in a manner similar to that of a ground hornbill as well.
Every living bird is as much a living dinosaur as any other. Birds are the last surviving branch of the dinosaur lineage, and nest firmly within that clade based on morphology and quite well-represented fossil history. While large flightless birds most convey the "raptor" image, it does not make them any more closely related to other dinosaurs than any other bird. The most basal living birds are paleognaths, which are represented by ratites and tinamous. The raptors of popular culture are highly inaccurate to the current understand of paleontology, and would have been feathered, highly bird-like animals in life. The most up to date theories as to their hunting techniques are that they hunted like flightless birds of prey, by using the talons to restrain prey while probably starting to feed while it was still alive. They are assumed to have had wing plumage by the presence of quill knobs in their arm bones, which are indicative of flight feathers in birds. Some dromaeosaurs - the proper term for the "raptor" dinosaurs - were probably able to fly, as they were preserved with large wing plumage (Microraptor most notably), whereas the larger species may have been secondarily flightless and used their feathered arms to balance on the backs of prey animals as, again, eagles may be seen to when attacking large animals. As such, the secretary bird is not that close of an analogue behaviorally to extinct raptor dinosaurs - at least not to the more well-known ones, like Velociraptor or Deinonychus. Art by Emily WiIloughby, Wikimedia Commons ~~~ Another tidbit: It is often suggested that the leg scales of birds are indicative of a dinosaur ancestry, but recent research suggests the reverse is true. Leg scales are not related structurally to reptile scales and appear to be a mutated feather structure, originating from feather-producing genes. So the ancestor of birds had a fully feathered body, and secondarily developed "scaled" legs!
All true. In fact Dinosauria is currently defined as "the most recent common ancestor of Triceratops horridus and Passer domesticus (the house sparrow) and all descendants of that ancestor."
Perhaps some races of domestic chicken which have fluffy plumage, feathered feet and almost no beak. Bird-sized non-avian theropods were fully feathered including lips, faces and toes, and many had elongated feathers on their legs forming "second wings". So previous illustrations imagining these animals as partially bald or scaly were not accurate. One dinosaur Anchiornis, which coloration is known, was described as similar to one particular race of ornamental chicken. One should look in the original article which race. A project for breeders of fancy chicken: breed a strain of chicken which most resembles a small theropod.
Oh please specificity the chickens' breeds, I have a fantasy zoo in the fantasies sub forum. I was planning a modern dinosaurs exhibit. By the way, it is entirely a bird park.
Lammergeier has always been one that reminds me of dinosaurs, but I could probably say that for most vultures
Quick search of the internet names it as "quite similar to the silver-spangled Hamburg chicken, a domestic breed of ornamental chicken" True-Color Dinosaur Revealed: First Full-Body Rendering I also thought that brushturkeys / megapodes may be interesting, because of their habit of nesting in incubation mounds. However, as far as we know, theropods actually incubated their eggs. Incubation mounds were used by other dinosaurs, and evolved back later in megapodes. Anyway, I once toyed with the idea of a dinosaur exhibit which included some live animals. Here is the description: "In the rainforest-like setting, there are Saltwater Crocodiles, Komodo Dragons and Australian water dragons. There are also Southern Cassowaries, which are the closest model how feathered maniraptorian dinosaurs might have looked in life. There are also Magpie Geese with Short-beaked Echidnas, as representatives of bird and mammal lineages already present in the Mesozoic. Tasmanian devils represent how about the biggest Mesozoic animals looked like. These animals can be seen both indoor and outdoor in well vegetated exhibits which are visually linked, and represent the today's North Australian rainforest (komodos and devils lived in mainland Australia until modern times). Pens are open-topped, glass-fronted, crocodiles have underwater viewing, and cassovaries have glass wall indoor and narrow moat outdoors. Indoors are also several invertebrates, like giant cockroaches, scorpions and bird spiders. A freshwater aquarium holds lungfish and freshwater turtles" On the afterthought, one might add a sea exhibit with sea turtles, sharks, rays and chambered nautilius. One non-obvious thing about Mesozoic was that it was not a land of dinosaurs, but really a time when shallow seas were much more extensive, covering much of today lowlands.
Seriemas, for the same reason as secretarybird and ground hornbills plus being the closest living relatives to terror birds. A little off-topic, but is it just me or Guira cuckoos kind of look like mini hoatzins?
Maybe not dinosaurs in particular, but I find that shoebills have a quite reptilian "air" to them - especially their facial expression, but also the way they can just stand completely still.
The crested screamer, Chauna torquata, and its relatives. With their looks, including their thick ,scaly legs and the claws they have on their wings I'd say they do have some characteristics that are reminiscent of their dinosaur ancestors. The greater roadrunner, Geococcyx californianus, does in my opinion bear quite some resemblance to the feathered raptor dinosaurs.
