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

Great Question holly!!

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

Loved your question, i love when inteligent questions about evolutions are asked, it is a subject that must be disscussed. Please pay no atention if some people awnser in a rude way ok? Please keep asking questions as intelligent as that one
=D Man i really liked it

Paz De Cristo for you holly


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2 things really sad to witness here are
1)the ofensive content on some people's awnser (i get more and more tired of evolutionists fundamentalists everyday)
2)my errors. Sorry, english is not my native language

Answer 2

Birds descended from reptiles.
They started jumping longer distances and that gave them an advantage. Some reptiles even today jump from one tree to another with the help of some membrane attached to the limbs.
Feathers evolved from scales.
The other major change was body temperature control.

About the strategies such as run, creep, etc. they are used by all kind of animals.

You could also ask why some birds don't fly but swim like fishes, why some fishes fly like birds and others crawl out of the sea, why some mammals live in the sea and some others fly, and so on...
Those adaptations are the best demonstration that evolution is true.
...

Answer 3

Birds developed flight along with winged insects in order to cover long distances rapidly. Nature was the big decider. The land had many users, the water had all kinds of animal life, so even the air was put to good use.
In nature, where there is a need, it will be filled. Feathers developed from scales.

Answer 4

Evolution is true.

The question is, did feathered dinosaurs start using their feathers to boost jumping (ground up) or glide (tree down).

The feather evolved from the scale, most likely to act as insulation. The streamlined flight feather came later. As an intermediate form between the scale and the modern feather, Dilong paradoxus had feathers without a central shaft.

Answer 5

the history and discovery channel had some really great shows on this exactly. raptors actually delveloped arms and the movements which would somday be used in flight by the way they are thought to have reached out and grabbed their prey. it is thought to be very similiar to a birds wing pattern. as for feathers.(thought to be specialized scales ... but they dont know yet). it took a long time and many scientists now thing feathers were on more dinosaurs than we previously thought... not just the bird type dinos.. but they started as a straight feather and became more developed and specialized as they evolved to where at some point archeopteryx was able to climb a tree and jump out of it and fly

Answer 6

flight is fast and effective; gets you away from predators, etc - an enormous advantage especially when you;re small. It has evolved independently in mammals, insects, reptiles and birds. It is still evolving - there are many species that glide and may evolve wings yet. Reptile/dinosaur scales have a tendency to get fluffy and extravagant round the edges and may have evolved first as camouflage, to catch prey, to impress matesand rivals (ther are plenty of living examples), or even (if the dino's were warm-blooded which looks likely) as insulation. think a little.

Answer 7

probably hair or fur came before feathers. and a few advantages to flying are
1. its faster
2. can see a lot more than if you were on the ground
3. cover greater distances with less effort.

as to why they evolved wings and flew, i can only say that it must have been an advantage for them to fly than crawl.

Answer 8

Birds fly because GOD gave them wings. Animals and plants and all things are made from the dust of the Earth. I believe in creationism . . . But the scientific minds wants answers to questions: how, and why, and when and where, observations that allow us to reason and theorize.

It takes an army of medical specialists to understand the human body. But then we arrogantly want to think we can comprehend GOD. There is clearly more to the universe than people understand and science hasn't begun to approach this TRUE reality of the universe. And even a rational scientist must be willing to acknowledge and address things which are offered to them . ..

You cannot disprove GOD by a universal negative, but GOD can be shown to be axiomatic. Therefore Athiesm is illogical. knowing that can we consider for a moment there is a much deeper meaning to the universe that scientist have long not comprehended . .. and this meaning is related to GOD . .. and by looking at the universe form this perspective, and only by looking at it from this perspective can we fully comprehend ourselves and the universe as to why evolution occurs . .. for why is this important to GOD?

And further i offer the closed minded person will discard this as mythology - and that's illogical the open-minded scientist needs to address it with logic . ..

-LOVE your neighbor as yourself.
Amen

Answer 9

Because it is useful for them.

For the predecessor and the intermediate state before a feather, perhaps you could try these webpage : http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/evolution/index.html
http://www.aquatic.uoguelph.ca/BirdS/morphevol/main.htm

Answer 10

1. Utilizing the air keeps them away from predators and brings them to resources, including tall tree branches where they can build nests.

2. That will be so cool to find out! Unfortunately, hair and feathers decay so quickly that I bet there's no fossil record at *all*.