How Did The First Birds Fly?

Publication Info:

Transcript:

E.A. Meilak et al, Hop, hop and away: On the take-off of Archaeopteryx using a multiple leaping mechanism, Developmental Biology (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2026.07.018

Imagine looking up 150 million years ago and seeing Archaeopteryx take flight! This incredible feathered dinosaur had wings, feathers, and a mix of bird-like and dinosaur-like features. But how did it actually fly?

Episode 326

Notes:

Have you ever wondered how the first birds flew? Cuz there's some brand new research that's given us some clues. This is Archaeopteryx, and in case you somehow haven't heard of it in the past 150 plus years, it's generally called the first bird. It's definitely somewhere in the early bird part of the bird family tree. While it has a lot of very bird-like features like wings, feathers, the general birdiness, it also has a lot of features that are not very bird-like. Like hands with claws and true teeth, and it doesn't have the breastbone you expect in modern birds. So, that's always kind of brought up the question of how did it fly? And how well could it fly? And it's kind of played into the debates over how flight started in early birds. Well, researchers just used advanced computer modeling to get a good idea of what Archaeopteryx could do. And the good news is it could definitely fly. That's not surprising. But, to be specific, it could achieve sustained flight at a speed of 23 ft per second. And that's where things diverge from modern birds, because modern birds take off with their legs. Roughly 90% of their take off is a jump. Archaeopteryx had to take off a little differently, because according to this research, it would take two to three leaps depending on how much the wings were helping. So, much more of a bounding or running or leaping and flapping start than a clean take off that we expect from modern birds. Now, that doesn't mean it was bad at flying. It just had a different take off technique. And to be fair, it did a lot better than our first attempts at flying. So, anyway, if you want more information, here's the source.