Page 59 - Dinosaur (DK Eyewitness Books)
P. 59
Wing with long
flight feathers
TAKING TO THE SKY
Technically, all birds are dinosaurs, but some early birds
were more similar to ground-based dinosaurs than
they were to modern birds. Archaeopteryx (“ancient
feather” or “ancient wing”) had the feathered wings
of a flying bird, yet the claws, hips, legs, toothy jaws,
and bony tail of a small theropod. Late in the
Jurassic Period, this crow-sized prehistoric bird
flapped over semidesert islands in what is
now southern Germany.
Archaeopteryx
Toothy jaw
Feathered tail
Forelimbs may
have supported
flight feathers
CLIMBERS AND GLIDERS
Epidexipteryx (“display Feather
feather”) was a tiny, feathered impressions
maniraptoran that probably
climbed and leaped around in
trees. Some scientists believe it
glided from tree to tree, using
feathered arms as wings. This Jurassic Archaeopteryx fossil
proto-bird (dinosaur with basic features Flight feathers
of a bird) lived before Archaeopteryx, which on wing
flew by flapping its wings. Flight by gliding Leading edge
was probably followed by flapping flight.
Clawed Feather shaft
wing finger
A BIRD WITH A BEAK
Confuciusornis had more features in common
with modern birds than do earlier birds, such
as Archaeopteryx. Confuciusornis had a horny Toothless
beak and a pygostyle (a bony tail core formed beak
from fused tail bones). This helped it to fly FLIGHT FEATHERS
better than Archaeopteryx, yet Confuciusornis still We know that Archaeopteryx could fly
had some primitive features, such as clawed because the primary feathers (feathers that
wing fingers. It lived in Early Cretaceous are the most important for flapping flight)
China and bred in colonies. on its wings were shaped like this one from
a modern flying bird. The flight feather’s
shaft is closer to one edge than the other.
The primary feathers of flightless birds
are shaped very differently—each
feather’s shaft runs through the
Long tail feather middle. This was characteristic of
flightless feathered dinosaurs
Highly curved foot claw such as Caudipteryx as well.
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