Could early birds fly? Fossil may hold answers to ancient mystery.

A well-preserved 125-million-year-old wing has been dug up in central Spain, and researchers say they have an answer to an old question.

|
Courtesy of Stephanie Abramowicz/Los Angeles County Natural History Museum
An illustrated reconstruction of what the ancient bird may have looked like, based on current evidence from a research team from Bristol University.

Ancient birds may have soared over the heads of dinosaurs, according to a new study of a fossilized wing found in central Spain.

The research, published Thursday in Scientific Reports, delves into the wing details of a 125-million-year-old bird – unlocking the mystery that for a long time scientists have debated: whether or not ancient birds had the power to fly.

Birds have a long evolutionary history compared to most other species: their earliest ancestors, the Archaeopteryx, lived some 150 million years ago in what is now southern Germany.

Led by University of Bristol PhD student, Guillermo Navalón, together with a team of Spanish paleontologists and Luis M. Chiappe of the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles County, the team studied the uniquely well-preserved right wing of the ancient bird from central Spain, which had not only the joint of the forelimb, but also remains of the plumage and of the soft-tissues of the wing, according to a statement.

From this dug-up evidence, the team was able to document a complex system of fibers which turn out to be an anatomical match to the network of ligaments, muscles, and tendons in modern-day birds. According to the researchers, this finely-tuned network positions the wing’s primary feathers, allowing modern birds to take to the sky.

“It’s very surprising that despite being skeletally quite different from their modern counterparts, these primitive birds show striking similarities in their soft anatomy,” lead author of the study, Mr. Navalón said.

The similarity of the structures in the wing of the primitive bird to the birds we see today supports the idea that at least some of the most ancient birds were capable of performing “aerodynamic feats” similar to those we see today, according to the study.

Co-author of the report, Jesús Marugán Lobón from Universidad Autónoma in Madrid called the fossil find “an open window to deep time,” that gives scientists access to the most minute details of “the early evolution of the flight of birds.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Could early birds fly? Fossil may hold answers to ancient mystery.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/1008/Could-early-birds-fly-Fossil-may-hold-answers-to-ancient-mystery
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe