The cursorial hypothesis suggests that bird ancestors ran and jumped, perhaps to catch prey, and thus evolved flight as a way to enhance this, and to safely get back to the ground again.
Evolution does not act with intelligence. It simply favours the survival of individuals that have certain traits. An animal that has gained the ability to fly may be better able to escape from predators. Scientists believe this may have been a major driving factor in the evolution of bird and insect flight.
Birds have hollow bones that are very light and strong. Their feathers are light and the shape of their wings is perfect for catching the air. Their lungs are great at getting oxygen and very efficient, so they can fly for very long distances without getting tired.
Paleontologists estimate that bird-relatives flew for the first time between the middle and late parts of the Jurassic period, about 160 million years ago.
Wings evolved from gliding ancestors who began to flap their gliding structures in order to produce thrust. (This is reasonable and possible, but only with phylogenetic evidence for an arboreal gliding origin.)
Experiments with gliders provided the groundwork for heavier-than-air craft, most notably by Otto Lilienthal, and by the early 20th century, advances in engine technology and aerodynamics made controlled, powered flight possible for the first time, thanks to the successful efforts of the Wright brothers.
There are two main reasons why humans cannot fly, and both are tied up with evolutionary factors. One reason is the physics of the body. A bird can fly because it has a lightweight skeleton with hollow bones, air sacs connected to huge lungs, and its wingspan and wing muscle strength are in balance with its body size.
Humans are not physically designed to fly. We cannot create enough lift to overcome the force of gravity (or our weight). It's not only wings that allow birds to fly. Their light frame and hollow bones make it easier to counteract gravity.
Even if humans did have wings, we wouldn't immediately be able to fly. To fly, we would also need the right body size and metabolism. Metabolism is our body's ability to use fuel (such as from the food we eat) to make energy, which helps us move. Birds have very higher metabolisms than us.
The theory states Archaeopteryx was a reptilian bird that soared from tree to tree. After the leap, Archaeopteryx would then use its wings as a balancing mechanism. According to this model, Archaeopteryx developed a gliding method to conserve energy.
Flying machines
Their arms have transformed into wings to power them along. Instead of heavy jaws and teeth, they have lightweight beaks. And instead of fur, they have feathers. These are light, streamlined and cleverly adjustable for flight control.
This took more than 350 million years. There are humans (Bajau Laut- sea nomads) who can hold their breath for longer durations (up to some minutes) underwater. However, it is biologically impossible to evolve (or devolve) to live underwater in a short period.
Much later, when they evolved into primates, their tails helped them stay balanced as they raced from branch to branch through Eocene jungles. But then, roughly 25 million years ago, the tails disappeared. Charles Darwin first recognized this change in our ancient anatomy.
More reproduction followed, and more mistakes, the process repeating over billions of generations. Finally, Homo sapiens appeared. But we aren't the end of that story. Evolution won't stop with us, and we might even be evolving faster than ever.
Changes in regulatory DNA, not gene mutations, are the culprit, scientists say. FLIGHTLESS FANCY Emus (one shown with a chick) and related birds may have lost the ability to fly because of changes in DNA that regulates genes.
Birds counteract* the downforce of gravity with an upward force called lift. Birds make this force by moving their wings through the air with the front part of its wing slightly higher than the back part. The air moves faster over the top of the wing; slower under the wing.
Some birds don't fly, like penguins, ostriches, emus, kiwis, and others. It is thought that these birds lost their ability to fly because there weren't any predators on the islands in which they evolved.
We will likely live longer and become taller, as well as more lightly built. We'll probably be less aggressive and more agreeable, but have smaller brains. A bit like a golden retriever, we'll be friendly and jolly, but maybe not that interesting. At least, that's one possible future.
As an organism grows, its weight increases at a faster rate than its strength. Thus, an average adult male human would need a wingspan of at least 6.7 meters to fly.
dodo, (Raphus cucullatus), extinct flightless bird of Mauritius (an island of the Indian Ocean), one of the three species that constituted the family Raphidae, usually placed with pigeons in the order Columbiformes but sometimes separated as an order (Raphiformes).
The first confirmed human flight was accomplished by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier in a tethered Montgolfier balloon in 1783.
A: The history of human-made flying objects is very long. The first flying objects made by humans were kites built in China in about 200 BCE! Leonardo da Vinci drew plans for an ornithopter in the 15th century, but he never actually constructed his designs, and they would have been far too heavy to fly anway.
The first manned flight was on November 21, 1783, the passengers were Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Francois Laurent. George Cayley worked to discover a way that man could fly. He designed many different versions of gliders that used the movements of the body to control.
Broadly speaking, evolution simply means the gradual change in the genetics of a population over time. From that standpoint, human beings are constantly evolving and will continue to do so long as we continue to successfully reproduce.