Carolyn Ogger, age 11, Bossier City, La., for her question:

Are birds related to reptiles?

The experts tell us that our lovely feathery birds are descended from animals who were reptiles. The earliest bird, so far as we know, appeared on the scene about 125 million years ago. He was definitely a reptile and he lived in the Age of Reptiles.

The fossil bones of this early bird were found in Bavaria. He has been named Airchaeopteryx, which in simple language means ~ancient‑Winged‑One. We know that this fellow had feathers, for his imprint was left on the rocks that sheltered his fossil bones. Were it not for those feather imprints, the bones of the= early bird might have been mistaken for those of a lizard.

He had a lizard's head with a long jaw full of teeth. He had a long lizard tail and his front limbs ended in claws. But in place of lizard scales he had feathers. His body was feathered and a fringe of stiff pinions grew down each side of his long tail. His front limbs were attached to his sides with strips of skin covered. with feathers. These were his wings, fringed like his tail with a border of stiff feathers. The ancient winged one could fly but perhaps not very far or very fast. However, with his claws and stiff‑feathered wings he was able to scramble: through the ancient jungles with the greatest of ease.

Bird fossils are not easy to find. ii bird is a light animal, he has to be in order to fly. His bones are hollow and his clothing is, of course as light as feathers. Because of this lightness, his remains soon decay, break up and disappear. The fossil remains of birds do not endure as well as, say, the fossil remains of mammals and dinosaurs. However, enough fossil remains have been found to supply the missing links between the bird family and the reptiles.

Buffalo Bill helped to find one of those ancient bird ancestors. He acted as the scout for a scientific expedition into Kansas. On this field trip, the remains of an ancient diving bird. were  found. He was named Herperornis, meaning the Western Bird, Hesperornis came along much later than the ancient winged one. He thrived some 90  million years ago when Kansas was a region of swamps  and marshes,

Hesperornis was more like a bird and less like a reptile than was Archaeopteryx. Nevertheless, he could hardly pass for a modern bird. For one thing, he had a mouthful of fierce teeth.

Today, there are more than 8 million different birds in the world and none of them have teeth. It is believed that teeth went out of fashion in the bird world about 60 or 70 million years ago. By this time they had also lost their wing claws and become warm‑blooded animals, However, like their ancient lizard ancestors, birds still lay eggs.