Dinosaur Model Explains How Earliest Birds Learned to Sustain Flight

Researchers from the University of Southampton believe they have discovered how dinosaurs learned to fly, going beyond the evolutionary origin of birds, RedOrbit reported.

Scientists have long speculated about the mechanics a dinosaur would actually need to lift itself into the air with its wings. The Southampton researchers expanded on recent work that uncovered how ancient dinosaurs developed wings through evolution of their limbs.

For the study, published in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists anatomically correct models of the dinosaurs and tested their capabilities in a wind chamber. According to the study, dinosaurs adopted flight with a gliding mechanism that allowed them to stay off the ground after takeoff.

"Significant to the evolution of flight, we show that Microraptor did not require a sophisticated, 'modern' wing morphology to undertake effective glides, as the high-lift coefficient regime is less dependent upon detail of wing morphology," said coauthor Dr. Gareth Dyke, Southampton professor of vertebrate paleontology.

Studying a model of the Microraptor, a bird-like dinosaur with four wings, the team concluded that its wings and limbs did not matter very much in terms of location on its body and shape.

The gliding mechanism suggests the Microraptor was able to glide from tree to tree without much added effort. The dinosaur was likely able to surf the sky at low altitudes without losing its loft.

"This is consistent with the fossil record, and also with the hypothesis that symmetric 'flight' feathers first evolved in dinosaurs for non-aerodynamic functions, later being adapted to form aerodynamically capable surfaces," Dyke said.

Previous research showed that when a dinosaur's limbs turned into wings, the forearms of the front limbs would elongate and the hind legs would shrink. Similar to modern birds, dinosaurs with smaller hind legs were better able to guide themselves in the air and perch on tree branches.

"Our findings suggest that the limb lengths of birds had to be dissociated from general body size before they could radiate so successfully," said study researcher Alexander Dececchi. "It may be that this fact is what allowed them to become more than just another lineage of maniraptorans and led them to expand to the wide range of limb shapes and sizes present in today's birds."