How birds got their wings: Fossil data show scaling of limbs altered as birds originated from dinosaurs
Tuesday, September 17, 2013 - 12:00
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Birds originated from a group of small, meat-eating theropod dinosaurs called maniraptorans sometime around 150 million years ago. Recent findings from around the world show that many maniraptorans were very bird-like, with feathers, hollow bones, small body sizes and high metabolic rates. But the question remains, at what point did forelimbs evolve into wings -- making it possible to fly?