Donald Manildi, age 12, of Spokane, Washington, for his question:

Did birds ever have teeth:

Nowadays, hens' teeth are very scarce, indeed.. In fact, no modern bird has any teeth at all. But this was not always so. The first bird that took to the air had a very good set of uppers and lowers. He was so like a reptile we would never have known he was a bird if he had not left behind imprints of his feathers.

This early bird lived about 150 million years ago and he has been given the fancy name Archaeopteryx ‑ the ancient flyer. Other, more bird‑like birds, came along in the next 50 million years. All these experimental models were fitted with teeth.

About 60 million years ago the bird world settled down with the graceful flying models we know today. Since that time no bird has had teeth.