If evolution is true, how and why did birds come to fly?

Question

What advantage is it if they do not utilize the air above for resources, why not run, creep, crawl, swing, etc.?

Also, where did feathers descend from, what is the intermediate state before a feather?

Answer 1

.The Evolution of species as presented by the priesthood of the great church of the National Geographic is not true . It has never been proven to be true. However it is hoped to be true and that is good enough for them. Evolution is a faith just like any other strongly held belief. The people who enter science are compelled to buy into it if they want to pass the courses in college and work in many of the sciences where it is assumed to be true.
Darwin himself expressed concerns that there was no fossil evidence to verify his own theories. However, evolutionists will claim that the fossil record is there nonetheless. It is not. They cannot , with evidence , demonstrate an immense and long continuing pattern of change between species as is being claimed by all. They believe their own lie. They explain how they think it works , but that is not theory; that is supposition. The scientific method requires hard and repeatable evidence. They do not have it and they know it.

Answer 2

I can't remember off-hand which book it was, but Stephen Jay Gould wrote an essay on this. His essays from the journal of Natural History were compiled into something like a dozen books. If you have a decent library nearby, it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Yes, it's generally supposed that the feather is an evolved scale. The whole thing of feathers and wings was actually thought to be some sort of temperature control mechanism before it was "co-opted" into a system of propulsion. The great advantage in flying is, not a lot of the large predators do it, so there's safety in that. (Unfortunately, some of the predators *do* fly (hawks, eagles, etc.). ) It also allows the bird to cover a larger area in a short amount of time, so that's a wider area in which to find food and shelter. You might say, the "air -niche" was open, so the ones who managed to fall in, "ruled" it and prospered. There really is no "why" to evolution. It has no directed goal or purpose. It just happens, and the result is so amazing, people start to believe in purpose where there is none.

Answer 3

Birds are descendants of dinosaurs. In fact, some dinosaurs had feathers, which were "descended" from scales. If you look carefully, you can see similarities between scales and feathers. Now, we think the smaller, more lightweight theropod dinosaurs eventually became birds. When feathers first evolved they were for insulation and display, not flight. But soon some dinosaurs began to have some extraordinary leaping abilities and some even became arboreal. Soon some evolved into birds. In fact, birds and dinosaurs share over 100 similarities and many now consider birds living dinosaurs.

Answer 4

Great questions -- these are types of things that evolutionary biologists think about.

Flight has several possible advantages:
1. To help escape from predators
2. To help catch flying or speedy prey
3. To help move from place to place (leaping or gliding)
4. To free the hindlegs for use as weapons
5. To gain access to new food sources or an unoccupied niche (for example, the tops of trees)

Feathers could have come from hair-like projections used for insulation. A possible scenario is outlined here: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/feathers.html

But we will have to gather fossil evidence and test models to have a better idea of the actual evolutionary pathway.

Answer 5

Flying, I would imagine it would be hard for a huge beast to catch a bird that's flying 50 metres up in the air.

I'm not sure of the evolutionary steps to feathers but I would imagine you could find it in just a few minutes on the Internet.

Answer 6

Birds are descended from reptilian ancestors.

Their bodies have been shaped by the requirements for flight.

Feathers are presumed to have evolved from reptilian scales.

Answer 7

they are descendants of dinosaurs and they developed wings because it suited them in their environment. the question i ask you is, why not fly? if you are a hardcore catholic will not listen to a word i am saying, but evolution is proven.

the reason that they have feather because they are suitable for flying, it makes them more aerodynamic combined to skin or scales

Answer 8

The above is from a fanatic who wants to take away your freedoms and replace your government with a theocracy by confusing you with lies.

Answer 9

It was all a great plan by some magical spiritual bird being.....!!! (Oh why do I bother awnswering these people.)

Answer 10

Yuo can't get eaten if you can fly.