Images for The Evolution of Flight

Flight in Insects

Swimming (and skimming) as a preadaptation

• Marden and Kramer make the cover of Nature
• Links to videos of skimming stoneflies, from James Marden's lab at Penn State.

Parachuting Vertebrates

• Photo of flying frog, not flying
• Drawing of flying frog (flying) published by Wallace in 1869
• Drawing of flying frog from Lydekker. Figure 13.2.
• Flying snake in flight from Jake Socha, a world expert on these creatures.
• Links to movies of flying snakes
• How a gliding snake glides. Jake Socha's research on flying snakes, featured in National Geographic News.
• Flying squirrel

Early Gliding Vertebrates

• Coelurosauravus.
  • Sketch of Coelurosauravus. Figure 13.3a.
  • Fossil of Coelurosauravus.
  • Sketch of airfoil of Coelurosauravus.
• Icarosaurus
  • Skeleton of Icarosaurus. Figure 13.3b.
• Sharovipteryx.
  • The Late Triassic gliding lepidosaur, Sharovipteryx
  • Original photo of the fossil, from the web site of Sharov's son.
  • A reconstruction of Sharovipteryx, from the web site of Sharov's son.
  • Sketch reconstruction of Sharovipteryx, without canard. Figure 13.4.
  • Sketch of fossil of Sharovipteryx, from the web site of Sharov's son.
• Longisquama
  • Longisquama: photo of specimen. BBC News OnLine.
  • One reconstruction of Longisquama in gliding position.. BBC News OnLine.
  • The Late Triassic gliding lepidosaur, Longisquama

Pterosaurs

• Introduction to Pterosaurs from UC Berkeley
• Painting of pterosaurs flying from the UC Berkeley site. These two are Dimorphodon
• Alternative reconstruction of pterosaur wings. Figure 13.11.
• Flange on the humerus of Nyctosaurus. Figure 13.10.
• Wingspans of pterosaurs and airplanes. Figure 13.14.
• Thalassadromeus (from the Cretaceous of Brazil) that fished by skimming the water.
  • The skull of Thalassodromeus. From Science paper.
  • Thalassodromeus and a skimmer for comparison. From Science paper.
  • Color reconstruction of Thalassodromeus. From Science paper.

• Larry Witmer and Anhanguera skull. From Ohio University.
• Reconstruction of head attitudes in two pterosaurs. From Larry Witmer's web site.
• A pterosaur embryo inside a pterosaur egg. Nature news service, June 10, 2004.
• Sordes
• A model Pteranodon reconstructed in flight over Kansas. National Geographic, January 2005.
• Pterodactylus from Solnhofen. National Geographic, January 2005

Birds

• Mei long, the sleeping dinosaur. National Geographic News
• Hoatzin. Paul Olsen's Earthscape site.

Early Birds, including Archaeopteryx

• Characters of birds: Image by Tom Holtz, University of Maryland
• Is Archaeopteryx a bird?: Image by Tom Holtz, University of Maryland
• The order in which birds evolved avian characters: Image by Tom Holtz, University of Maryland
• Sketch of the first six specimens of Archaeopteryx
• Archaeopteryx, from Nicholas Geist's site at Sonoma State University, California.
• Berlin specimen of Archaeopteryx Paul Olsen's Earthscape site.
• Archaeopteryx vs. bird Paul Olsen's Earthscape site.
• Archaeopteryx in hunting/scavenging mode. Paul Olsen's Earthscape site.
• Lithograph of Archaeopteryx published by Richard Owen in 1863
• Lithograph of Berlin specimen
• CT scan of an Archaeopteryx brain: Digimorph site

The Origin of Powered Flight in Birds

• Nopsca's cartoon of a running protobird. Figure 13.17.

Display and Fighting in Birds

• A bowerbird bower. From Natural History, 2002.
• In another the bowerbirds build different bowers. From Natural History, 2002.

The WAIR hypothesis

Did Archaeopteryx Fly?

• The wing of Archaeopteryx lacks primaries. Drawing by Heilmann. Figure 13.18.
• The supracoracoideus system of living birds. Figure 13.19.

Cretaceous Birds

New discoveries of Cretaceous birds and close relatives:

• Location of Liaoning fossils. From the Peabody Museum, Yale.
• Protarchaeopteryx. From the Peabody Museum, Yale.
• Rahonavis is a small flying Cretaceous bird from Madagascar, but it has a slashing claw much like its distant coelurosaur cousins.
• Jeholornis, colored painting. From Science commentary.
• Jeholornis, seeds in gut. From Science commentary.
• Confuciusornis, an Early Cretaceous bird from China. (It has DISPLAY feathers!). From the Peabody Museum, Yale.
• Confuciusornis.
• Confuciusornis and Liaoningornis. Liaoningornis is a relatively advanced flying bird from the Early Cretaceous of China.
• Feathered unhatched chick from Liaoning
  • Reconstruction of embryo. National Geographic news.
  • Photo of fossil. National Geographic news.
  • Adult and nest. National Geographic news. There is no adult, by the way: nor is there a nest.
  • Hatchlings. National Geographic news. There is no adult, by the way: nor is there a nest.

• Ichthyornis drawing from Marsh. Better than Figure 13.21.
• Mounted skeleton of Hesperornis from the Oceans of Kansas Web site.
• Drawing of Hesperornis by Marsh. Equivalent of Figure 13.20.
• Hesperornis from the Oceans of Kansas Web site.
• Reconstruction of Hesperornis from the Oceans of Kansas Web site.
• Another reconstruction of Hesperornis from the Oceans of Kansas Web site.
• A reconstruction of the flightless fishing bird Baptornis from National Geographic.

Cenozoic Birds

• Diatryma. Sketch, Figure 13.22.
• Aepyornis, the elephant bird
• Aepyornis egg
• Titanis walleri,. Careful -- it is Titanis not Titanus.
• Distribution of ratites across the Southern continents. Figure 13.23.
• Aepyornis and an ostrich. Figure 13.24a and 13.24b.
• Smizurgh from Arab legend. Figure 13.24c.

The Largest Flying Birds

• Teratorn from the La Brea Tar Pits
• Outline of the teratorn from the la Brea tarpits. Figure 13.25.

Bats

• The Eocene bat Icaronycteris
• Bat wings

Page last updated, November 17, 2004.

Links last checked July 16, 2004.

Images for Chapter 12 ]

Images for Chapter 14 ]

[Return to UC Davis Geology Department Home Page]