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Birds have an enormously long evolutionary history: The earliest of them, the famed Archaeopteryx, lived 150 million years ago in what is today southern Germany. However, whether these early birds were capable of flying—and if so, how well—has remained shrouded in scientific controversy. A new discovery published in the journal Scientific Reports documents the intricate arrangement of the muscles and ligaments that controlled the main feathers of the wing of an ancient bird, supporting the notion that at least some of the most ancient birds performed aerodynamic feats in a fashion similar to those of many living birds.
An international team of Spanish paleontologists and NHM's Director of the Dinosaur Institute, Dr. Luis M. Chiappe, studied the exceptionally preserved wing of a 125-million-year-old bird from central Spain. Beyond the bones preserved in the fossil, the tiny wing of this ancient bird reveals details of a complex network of muscles that in modern birds controls the fine adjustments of the wing's main feathers, allowing birds to master the sky.
Did they taste like chicken?
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday October 09 2015, @02:16PM
Didn't read the article, but how can they be sure? Did they find bird poop on a dino's head?
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 09 2015, @11:27PM
Actually, that raises the interesting question of how badly herbivorous dinosaurs coped with avian flus and other diseases spread by early birds by droppings onto above-ground-level foliage. Something like that may have helped contribute to the extinction of most of the other sauropsids.