English: Meleagris gallopavo Linnaeus, 1758 - wild turkeys in South Dakota, USA. (August 2010)

Birds are small to large, warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered, bipedal vertebrates capable of powered flight (although some are secondarily flightless). Many scientists characterize birds as dinosaurs, but this is consequence of the physical structure of evolutionary diagrams. Birds aren’t dinosaurs. They’re birds. The logic & rationale that some use to justify statements such as “birds are dinosaurs” is the same logic & rationale that results in saying “vertebrates are echinoderms”. Well, no one says the latter. No one should say the former, either.

However, birds are evolutionarily derived from theropod dinosaurs. Birds first appeared in the Triassic or Jurassic, depending on which avian paleontologist you ask. They inhabit a wide variety of terrestrial and surface marine environments, and exhibit considerable variation in behaviors and diets.

The wild turkey is the most massive species in its entire order of birds. Two species of turkey are currently extant - others are known as fossils. Both modern turkey species are native to the New World. Domesticated turkeys, used as a source of food by humans, are derived from the wild turkey. Considerable sexual dimorphism is present - males are larger with more colorful plumage, and moderately long tail feathers. Females are smaller with more subdued plumage coloration, and shorter tail feathers.

Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Aves, Galliformes, Phasianidae

Locality: Wind Cave National Park, southern Black Hills, southwestern South Dakota, USA

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Info. at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_turkey and

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_(bird)