A University of Georgia geologist will analyze ways that fossil discoveries in China are blurring the boundaries that separate birds from dinosaurs at the Oconee Rivers Audubon Society’s next meeting, set for 7 p.m. Thursday, March 7, at Sandy Creek Nature Center.

Ray Freeman-Lynde, an associate professor in UGA’s Department of Geology, will discuss how “Birds ARE Dinosaurs!”

Researchers this year described a small, feathered dinosaur found in northeastern China. The fossil, which dates from the Jurassic period, is of a birdlike dinosaur about a foot long with a long tail. Its feathers are much-reduced, leading scientists to believe it could not fly, but scurried along on the ground.

Discoveries of fossilized feathery dinosaurs increased exponentially in the 1990s, and today more than a dozen genera have been described. Most are from China.

Freeman-Lynde delivered the second in the Origins Lecture Series last month at UGA, speaking on the origin of the Earth.

His talk at the Oconee Rivers Audubon Society’s next meeting will be held in the Nature Center’s newly expanded Education and Visitor Center, formerly the ENSAT Center, 205 Old Commerce Road off U.S. 441 north of Athens.

For more information, visit www.oconeeriversaudubon.org, or contact Audubon chapter President Richard Hall at president@oconeeriversaudubon.org or publicity@oconeeriversaudubon.org.