The common ancestor of all living birds was a flightless, partridge-like creature which only survived the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs because it lived on the ground, scientists have concluded.

Birds had to rediscover flight all over again after tree-dwelling varieties were killed off 66 million years ago alongside huge predators like Tyrannosaurus Rex.

An international team of scientists including researchers from the University of Bath studied the fossil record and found that the asteroid strike caused global deforestation and the extinction of most flowering plants, destroying the habitats of all most all birds.

Only those on the ground were able to survive, and it would be thousands of years before any evolved flight and took to the trees again.