Origin of avian flight

Around 350 BCE, <a href="/facts/Aristotle/U2bDlBFW">Aristotle</a> and other philosophers of the time attempted to explain the aerodynamics of <a href="/facts/Avian_flight/xL5RXuVT">avian flight</a>. Even after the discovery of the ancestral bird <a href="/facts/Archaeopteryx/2sR4Tns8">Archaeopteryx</a> which lived over 150 million years ago, debates still persist regarding the evolution of flight. There are three leading hypotheses pertaining to avian flight. In the Pouncing <a href="/facts/Proavis/k3G30oQG">Proavis</a> model, it is assumed to have evolved from ambush predators pouncing on prey from above. The <a href="/facts/Cursorial/X3I6rYVc">Cursorial</a> model assumes that flight started with running dinosaurs making short leaps and evolving proto-wings for greater control over those leaps. The third hypothesis, the <a href="/facts/Arboreal/6C5AeQ2y">Arboreal</a> model, assumes birds evolved from tree-dwelling gliders, who gradually increased their control and flight distance.
In March 2018, scientists reported that <a href="/facts/Archaeopteryx/2sR4Tns8">Archaeopteryx</a> was likely capable of <a href="/facts/Bird_flight/xL5RXuVT">flight</a>, but in a manner substantially different from that of <a href="/facts/Birds/RJF6zwLP">modern birds</a>.

Origin of avian flight open-in-new

Origin of avian flight