Breakthrough: The Avian Authority

Watch all 12 of the Breakthrough Series episodes at http://www.breakthroughfilms.org

When paleontologist Jingmai O’Connor looks at the abdomen of a small, ancient avian fossil, she gets a thrill when she spots a jumble of nodules, no bigger than a scattering of goosebumps, protruding from the creature’s bones. Their presence could mean the animal’s metabolism supported rapid egg growth. In another specimen, O’Connor discovers an entire bird gobbled up inside of a chicken-sized feathered dinosaur, revealing a clue about the ecology in which both animals lived. O’Connor’s obsessive eye for detail and encyclopedic knowledge of morphology comes in handy when she’s placing these fossils on the ancient family tree of birds. She credits those skills, as well as her enthusiasm for science, to her mother, a geochemist who earned her PhD while raising O’Connor and her three siblings. It was also her mother’s influence that led O’Connor to focus on geology—and to explore her own Chinese-American roots—by focusing her studies on the scores of bird fossils coming out of China at the turn of the century. Dozens of discoveries later, O’Connor is now a professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology in Beijing where she uses the world’s largest collection of avian dinosaurs to explore the changes in ancient species that led to wings, tail feathers, flight, and many other adaptations seen in modern birds.
Produced in collaboration with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios

Directed and Produced by
Luke Groskin

Director of Photography
Kartsen Hohmann
and Christian Baker

Edited by
Erika Sutter and Luke Groskin

Animations by
Luke Groskin and Lottie Kingslake

Paleo-Illustrations by
Gabriel Ugueto

Music by
Audio Network

On-Location Production Support
by Karsten Hohmann

Series Producer
Luke Groskin

Additional Photos and Video Provided by
Jingmai O’Connor, Pond5
Shutterstock, University of Southern California

Project Advisors for HHMI Tangled Bank Studios -
Richard Stone
and Aileen O’Hearn

Project Support for Science Friday Initiative by
Danielle Dana, Jennifer Fenwick, Ariel Zych
Nadja Oertelt, Kyle Marian Viterbo, Diana Montano
Daniel Peterschmidt, Xochitl Garcia, Nahima Ahmed

Special Thanks
Jingmai O’Connor, Yuet-Ling O’Connor, Alida Bailleul, Wang Min
Wu Quian, Jennifer Shalant, Christian Skotte
The Institute of Vertabrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropolgy

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