If you’re wondering why I’m posting it here, there are more evolutionists here than in the biology section. Go figure…
2007-07-09 12:12:59 · 22 answers · asked by Desiree 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
It did not happen suddenly. It is believed to have begun in a very similar way to how is is currently happening with certain species of frog, which jump from tree to tree and have a membrane of skin stretched between their legs to aid this. Likewise, the ancestors of birds were runners and jumpers who used what would later become wings to sail through the air with greater ease. They evolved from reptiles who ran on two legs and did not have much use of their front limbs. As reptiles, they had to regulate body temperature; the fore-runners of wings were probably ectothermal regulators that as a side-effect aided passage through the air. (Even today a vulture that needs to cool down will sit with its wings spread in the shade).
As to Practical Thought's answer, intermediary stages have been discovered: reptile-like fossils such as 'Archeopteryx' of birds that could not 'fly' as we know it but could make long air-assisted jumps, birds with teeth. It is also believed by many that some species of dinosaur possessed feathers as thermal regulators, including T.Rex.
2007-07-09 12:25:36 · answer #1 · answered by Citizen Justin 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Well, feathers are modified scales. Birds descend from a famous reptilian lineage, the dinossaurs (a group called saurischia to be more specific). Dinossaurs probably had warm blood (like us, unlike turtles they kept their body temperature constant). So some of them got an advantage when some scales gradually modified to structures that ended up keeping the body warm (like fur on mammals or, well feathers in some birds help keep bodyy temperatura constant). Did you know that the T-rex had feathers? The velociraptor had feathers too! They both belong to the group of dinossaurs that originated birds, and their feathers helped them keep their body temperature constant (i bet that if they had made them with feathers in the movies they wouldn't be scary at all heh).
Flying, now thats a little more triky and is not explain with the same ammount of details as the evolutionary orign of feathers.
It is believed that some feathered dinossaurs ended up with a tree climbing life habit. They had to jump from tree to tree and ended up developing a more aerodinamic shape lighter body etc. Have you heard of the archeopterix, well it is very likly he did just that, it is not known today if he did or did not fly. Still hes pretty much a feathered dinossaur with wings theeth, long neck a lot of fusioned vertebera (bird characteristic) and aerial sacs, another bird characteristic that was shared with some dinosaurs also (the t-rex and the velociraptor amongst others).
Well, time passed and those dinossaurs started flying, they still fly today only we call them birds.
There are inoumerous advantages to flight
1)insects alredy flew back them, so hunting them was a pretty good way of life
2)fleeing
3)macking nests where things that can't fly can't reach
etc etc
Paz De Cristo
Sorry, english is not my native language
copied and pasted from: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlSqpi5bmXFdIG2tqFdEeBnsy6IX?qid=20070709180239AAKQrBd&show=7#profile-info-FKN4oFHiaa
2007-07-09 21:48:09 · answer #2 · answered by Emiliano M. 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sources please?
I wonder where you read that this happen in a day...
Think of it like a chicken, they cant fly, but they have wings. A really long time ago this prehistoric "chicken" had wings too. They couldnt fly, but they could jump and flap their wings to land more slowly like chicken do today. After millions of years they changed and could glide a bit farther. A bunch of years after that they could stay in the air for a long period of time without needing land.
Different species changed in different ways.
Why are you looking for a logical answer if you wont believe it not matter how much proof there is? You want a scientific answer when you believe some guy turned water to wine? When you think men was created men from a pile of dirt, and than a women with a rib?
Logical answers do not fit with Religion.
2007-07-09 19:25:37 · answer #3 · answered by SwimBuddy 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You can't imagine rudimentary wings aiding the movement of an animal? Ever seen a flying squirrel? How about a flying fish? Ever wonder why they actually can't fly for long periods? Hmm an interesting mystery. Incidentally, you're correct in denying evolution as the only hope of resurrecting any useful type of God. If evolution were true, there really is nothing for God to do, and no redemption for you and all your fearful brethren. Enjoy!
Oh and to what do you attribute flightless birds like penguins and ostriches? The capricious deity? Carry on!
2007-07-09 19:28:26 · answer #4 · answered by heartfelt_atheist 2 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, it just happened one day, the bird got up and decided to fly. Or if you actually lived in reality, you would realize it would have taken place over millions and millions of years.
Oops, shame on me, because you believe in the Bible and think that the world is only 6,000 years old (as is noted in the Bible - by tracking the Bible back through the characters).
2007-07-09 19:33:09 · answer #5 · answered by corona001500 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Perhaps in the idiotic creationist rubbish, things happen in 'just one day'. In reality evolution takes millions of years.
2007-07-09 20:46:20 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
What makes you think that they suddenly, one day took to the air? Did you see it happen?
According to evolution, before there were mammals at all, there were flying dinosaurs.
We have several mammals that glide using wing like flaps of skin.
But what point are you trying to make here?
Isn't it the nature of life to consume all available aspects of the earth?
Just as the bible said, life will cover the earth.
2007-07-09 19:18:42 · answer #7 · answered by Jeff B 6 · 5⤊ 2⤋
one animal mutated to have lighter bones and wings. They then had to escape from a predator started to flap their wings and they escaped pretty useful adaptation
If you look at the wings of a bird and the hand of a human the leg of an alligator and the fin of a dolphin, the bones are almost int he exact same place. There is some proof for you
2007-07-09 19:18:35 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 9⤊ 1⤋
Speaking as a Biologist...
They didn't. Next Question?
By the way:
Gallus Gallus Gallus, the wild chicken, is a flightless bird, as are ostriches and penguins, duh.
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Gallus_gallus.html
2007-07-09 19:20:12 · answer #9 · answered by LabGrrl 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
As someone who has studied birds for quite a bit of her life, I have no problem with their evolution. There is plenty of evidence of dinosaurs who were feathered and who were capable of flight. I think flight began with gliding and progressed from there.
A while back I read a very interesting article about how ants were possibly the progenitor of flight. There is a species of ant that lives in trees. Despite having no wings it is capable of manipulating its body to glide long distances.
2007-07-09 19:18:29 · answer #10 · answered by in a handbasket 6 · 12⤊ 1⤋