Re: [dinosaur] Archaeopteryx had active flapping flight ability based on wing bone geometry (free pdf)

[Ruben Safir <ruben@mrbrklyn.com>]

On 03/14/2018 11:18 PM, Tim Williams wrote:
>> swans, 100% need a running start to get in the air.
> I highly recommend you read both Earls (2000) and Dececchi et al.
> (2016).  Your statement may hold for swans, but there is no reason to
> believe that a running take-off is primitive for birds.  Rather, it
> appears to be a derived behavior, restricted to certain birds.  In
> this context, Earls actually mentions swans specifically: "Second, a
> running take-off of the type proposed in evolutionary hypotheses is
> seen in select groups of living birds that are morphologically
> specialized (e.g. albatrosses, loons), that are taking off from highly
> compliant surfaces (e.g. water) or that are very large (e.g. swans)."


And yet there Archaeopteryx is, a bird which obviously will need to run
to get enough lift to fly.  It can't really be denied.  If Swans need a
running start, Archaeopteryx, which is better designed for running, and
less designed for a leap and winged launch, would need it even more so.
The time line is being fudged here.  Just because Swans today are part
of a select group of birds that do a running takeoff doesn't mean the
trait is not ancestral to transitional forms within coelurosaurs.