Fossil data show scaling of limbs altered as birds
originated from dinosaurs
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?
McGill University professor Hans Larsson and a former
graduate student, Alexander Dececchi, set out to answer that question by
examining fossil data, greatly expanded in recent years, from the period
marking the origin of birds.