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The Origin of Birds and the Evolution of Flight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2017

J.A. Gauthier  and
K. Padian
J.A. Gauthier
Affiliation:
Department of Herpetology, California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA 94118
K. Padian
Affiliation:
Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2399
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Extract

One of the most salient advances in vertebrate paleontology in recent decades has been the settling of the question of the origin of birds, a problem that has vexed evolutionary biologists since well before Darwin. To be sure, the consensus is not unanimous, and many details of this branch of the phylogenetic tree are yet to be worked out, but we now have a much clearer picture of this problem than we had a decade ago. Less settled, but equally stimulating, has been the controversy over the origin of flight in birds and other flying vertebrates. Was there a gliding stage? Did flight begin from the ground up or from the trees down? Were birds initially arboreal? What selective pressures drove the ancestors of birds to take advantage of the aerial opportunity?

Type
Research Article
Information
Short Courses in Paleontology , Volume 2: The Age of Dinosaurs , 1989 , pp. 121 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 Paleontological Society 

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