Most close relatives of birds neared the potential for powered flight but few crossed its thresholds
Tuesday, August 11, 2020 - 12:11
in Paleontology & Archaeology
New research has resulted in an updated evolutionary tree of early birds and their closest relatives to reconstruct powered flight potential, showing it evolved at least three times. Many ancestors of the closest bird relatives neared the thresholds of powered flight potential, suggesting broad experimentation with wing-assisted locomotion before flight evolved.