Modern birds capable of flight all have a specialized wing structure called the propatagium without which they could not fly. The evolutionary origin of this structure has remained a mystery, but new ...

The Wright Brothers studied bird flight before they designed the first airplane. Now modern aircraft fly higher and faster than any bird, yet no manufactured device matches the graceful movements and ...

Bird wings adapted for long-distance flight are linked to their environment and behavior, according to new research on an extensive database of wing measurements. Bird wings adapted for long-distance ...

Geographic and phylogenetic sampling of avian wing-bone morphology. Using measurements from 7366 skeletal specimens, we analyze variation in wing-bone length across 1520 bird species, representing ...

The bones of a 160-million-year-old dinosaur are helping scientists solve one of evolution’s biggest mysteries: how birds gained flight. Hidden within the wrist of a small, feathered dinosaur lies a ...

Certain air sacs have evolved in multiple lineages of soaring birds, and it emerges that these probably function to reduce the force required from the major flight muscles as they hold the wings in ...

The path to flight in modern birds was full of forks, twists and dead ends. Erin Malsbury Tens of millions of years of bird evolution guided some of the most important elements of human-powered flight ...