Scientists say that the reason why modern birds exist today is thanks to their ancestors that scavenged seeds after a massive meteor wiped out most land animals and dinosaurs, leading to a global mass die-off.

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These ancestors are bird like dinosaurs that possess beaks without any teeth, apparently surviving this "nuclear winter" that occurred right after this massive meteor impact, all thanks to their diet. This impact was experienced on a global scale that it instantly changed Earth's climate and blocked sunlight from entering the planet's atmosphere.

During this period, vegetation was lost where plant eating dinosaurs struggled to search for food, also leading to carnivorous dinosaurs to lose their food source as well.

In order to survive, smaller toothless bird like dinosaurs turned to seeds scattered around the ground until the planet's climate recovered. Scientists now believe that the reason why birds have no teeth is due to this diet that forced them to subsist on seeds alone.

According to lead author of the study, Derek Larson of the University of Toronto, after this meteor, virtually nothing is left but a harsh, nuclear winter where plants were not able to grow due to lack of proper nourishment from the sun, causing plant eating dinosaurs to decline, and ultimately, carnivorous dinosaurs were not able to hunt for herbivores since they have perished.

The team also believes that the survival of birds is linked to their beak presence. In this new study, researchers examined more than 3,000 fossilized teeth specimens from bird like dinosaurs called maniraptorans. These dinosaurs are considered to be the closest cousins of modern birds however, they mysteriously disappeared along with birds with teeth during the Cretaceous period.

Larson and his team suspects that this diet was integral in the survival of the ancestors of modern birds, linking this to their diet. By studying the diet of modern birds, the team was able to reconstruct a hypothetical ancestral bird model including their possible diet in that harsh environment. Larson says that they have envisioned a seed eating bird with a robust, strong beak that is able to crush any seed, including larger, harder kinds.

Today's birds would not have survived if not for this seed eating diet of their ancestors but the team also believes that other birds could have survived the impact by eating insects. He adds that this is the first time that a study investigated on a different idea of how birds evolved into various groups, depending on their ability to eat seeds.

Dust in the atmosphere was so thick from the huge asteroid explosion that it blocked sunlight and prevented photosynthesis in plants. Since seeds were already on the ground at the time, this became a viable food source for those surviving dinosaurs that had beaks.

This new study is published in the journal Current Biology.