Wings may have evolved not to help the ancestors of birds fly but to help them run faster. The claim is a new twist in the old argument over how birds first got airborne. It comes from researchers in California who have studied the aerodynamics of the oldest known, primitive bird called Archeopteryx, which lived about 150 million years ago.
Many scientists believe birds evolved from dinosaurs.
This means at some stage in history the ancient ancestors of birds must have evolved wings and feathers that enabled them to take off. But opinion is sharply divided over how they actually first took to the air. Some claim tree-dwelling dinosaurs developed the capacity for flight by gliding from branch to branch. Others think fast-running, bipedal dinosaurs gradually evolved the wings, feathers, and muscle structure necessary to get off from the ground. Philip Burgers of the San Diego Natural History Museum, and Luis Chiappe of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, ally themselves to this second hypothesis and have used the fossil records of Archaeopteryx to model how the creature might have got airborne.