The differences between flying feathers and non-flying feathers could clarify which dinosaurs took to the skies.
Scientists say that the flight feathers of birds, including the flight feathers of the Temminck's Lark pictured above, provide clues into the abilities of the dinosaurs. Heaps of dinosaurs had feathers. But only a handful developed those feathers for flight. In fact, determining which feathered dinos flew and which feathered dinos didn’t has historically posed a problem for paleontologists. A new study, however, suggests that the problem isn’t as tricky as previously thought.
In the recent study, O’Connor and Yosef Kiat, another paleontologist at the Chicago Field Museum, instead turned to the structure of feathers in birds — the only surviving descendants of the dinosaurs and the only surviving theropods in the world today. By investigating the distribution of their feathers and other feathery features, the pair found several traits that all flying birds seem to share.
To arrive at their findings, the team studied feathers from over 340 species of flying and non-flying birds, from pelicans to penguins. Comparing and contrasting the feathers of the fliers with those of the non-fliers, the team identified several shared traits among the species of birds that soar through the skies.
“They all share this trait of having between 9 and 11 primary feathers,” said Kiat in a press release. “I was surprised that no one seems to have found this before.”Testing their findings further, O’Connor and Kiat identified the flying abilities of 35 separate species of fossil theropod, thanks to their set of shared feather traits.
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