Flight also requires both acute vision and fine muscle control. Birds have excellent eyesight. The visual and motor areas of the brain are well developed, and the brain is proportionately larger than those of amphibians and nonbird reptiles. Birds generally display very complex behaviors, particularly during breeding season, when they engage in elaborate courtship rituals.
How did flight evolve in the therapods? In one scenario, feathers may have enabled the small, running dinosaurs chasing prey or escaping predators to gain extra lift as they jumped up into the air. Or, small dinosaurs could have gained traction as they ran up hills by flapping their feathered forelimbs — a behavior seen in birds today. In a third scenario, some dinosaurs could have climbed trees and glided, aided by feathers. Whether birds took to the air from the ground up or from the trees down, an essential question being studied by scientists ranging from paleontologists to engineers is how their efficient flight stroke evolved. By 150 million years ago, feathered therapods had evolved into birds.
How did flight evolve in the therapods? In one scenario, feathers may have enabled the small, running dinosaurs chasing prey or escaping predators to gain extra lift as they jumped up into the air. Or, small dinosaurs could have gained traction as they ran up hills by flapping their feathered forelimbs — a behavior seen in birds today. In a third scenario, some dinosaurs could have climbed trees and glided, aided by feathers. Whether birds took to the air from the ground up or from the trees down, an essential question being studied by scientists ranging from paleontologists to engineers is how their efficient flight stroke evolved. By 150 million years ago, feathered therapods had evolved into birds.