====== Avian flight evolution ======

It's now widely agreed that modern-day birds evolved, during the //Mesozoic Era//, from dinosaur species which survived the //Cretaceous / Tertiary// extinction event. (See: [[content:life_sciences:zoology:avian_kt_survival]] )

But the question of how and why birds acquired the ability to fly is still being debated.<sup>(* see note )</sup>

There are at least five mainstream theories, some from the time of Darwin, each of which covers various aspects of the evolution, but has not yet been generally accepted as a complete explanation.

  * Pouncing Proavis model 
  * Cursorial model 
  * Wing-assisted incline running
  * Arboreal model
  * Synthesis model

See : [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_avian_flight#Hypotheses|Wikipedia]]

//*Note : //The question of how birds manage the aerodynamics of flight goes back at least to the time of Aristotle - and has now been largely explained. But the question of the gradual //development// of flight only arose after Darwin's and Wallace's theories of evolution in the mid 1800s.

----

Also see : [[content:life_sciences:zoology:feather_evolution|]]