URL:

https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/sjpalae...iew/27543/23232

Title & Authors:
Luis M. Chiappe, Francisco J. Serrano, Stephanie Abramowicz, Ursula B. Göhlich

Abstract:
The Chinese early Cretaceous Confuciusornis sanctus is the most abundant Mesozoic bird and a model species for studies of early avian evolution. While previous investigations were largely focused on aspects of the anatomy, taxonomy and systematics, and life history and ecology of this bird, there has been minimal research on its flight properties. Our study centers on a well-preserved specimen with exquisite details of its plumage. NHMW 1997z0112/0001 affords novel information on aspects of its skeletal morphology, particularly from the axial and appendicular skeletons, and its plumage provides the opportunity to quantify key flight-related variables including, wingtip, wing chord, body mass, wingspan, and wing area. We use these parameters to provide a quantitative assessment of the flight properties of C. sanctus. Most previous studies have suggested that this species was unable to achieve prolonged flights. However, our results indicate that the capacity for this bird to perform prolonged flights cannot be discarded, given that our data shows it might have been able to combine periods of flapping with periods of efficient low-speed gliding. Specifically, our results indicate that while having slightly less capacity than modern gliding birds, the gliding capacity of C. sanctus would have been significantly higher than that of modern short-term fliers such as land fowl. On the basis of these inferences, we conclude that C. sanctus could fly efficiently for prolonged periods of time when used a combination of flapping and gliding periods.

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Apparently, the plumage *does* enter into it, EVEN THOUGH it's stone dead.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

"................we conclude that C. sanctus could fly efficiently for prolonged periods of time when used a combination of flapping and gliding periods."

How does that differ from normal soaring birds today?

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Wonder what these super smart men get paid to look at a birds bones, and feathers, for months, maybe even years? I wonder if it would be more helpful to study why this bird was so well perserved? Why did it stay so still when the preservative was covering it. The wings show no sign of fight or struggle to get free. I wonder why there are no indications of wing movement in the background.

i mostly wonder why we need to know this.

See, that's the point: it mostly wasn't. It's been argued for years that Conficiusornis was a clumsy flier, or even completely flightless, or maybe 'only' a glider, and not a true power flier. This is another bit of data we can gleen about the evolutionary history of powered flight.




Mostly good questions:
Not nearly enough, actually: the whole field of education in most areas is vastly underfunded, compared to the amount of money our society as a whole wastes on a bunch of other projects.
And the study of preservation of specimens, called Taphonomy, is actually a discipline, which plays an important part in the fields of geology and paleontology.
And it 'stayed still' while being covered because it was already dead. Don't really want to contemplate the idea of 110+million year old bird zombies.
And aside from merely filling our curiosity, study of the biodiversity of the past can inform us of the future. Might be good to know where we're going before we get there.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

Honestly when i first saw your topic "early" bird i thought you meant as in catches the worm. We' ve been told to exercise our brains everyday. (no blond jokes needed --TY') i think the first sentence you led off with was enough for 2 days . At least! But i actually found out birds have leg bones named the same as ours, Of course if i'd thought about it for any amount of time that'd be obvious but i just figured the longest bone in a birds body would be different then our longest bone, the tibula. Thanks. (hope i got that right. LOL)

ed

Raises an interesting question: given that worms evolved long before anything resembling a bird, just how early did that proverbial bird have to be? I mean, wouldn't there have been millions of warms available (even given the presence of other worms predators to compete with)?

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

And still we do not know which came first.