Velociraptors on air remix
Added 2019-10-28 01:25:12 +0000 UTC
Deinonychus by Darren Naish, showcasing both flying juveniles and clueless adult.
A brief one. Everyone got acquainted with my hyper-controversial flying dromaeosaur post, right? Well, a more recent study on dromaeosaur flight has been posted. I disagree with some of its conclusions, but it did provided an immeasurably useful tool: a proper value for flight strokes in paravians.
According to said study, humerus-femur proportion rates have to be above 70% in order for a proper flight stroke to be provided and for wing-loading to be carried appropriately. To these ends there is a proper table with examples:
https://peerj.com/articles/7247/#table-3
Some are to be expected, but other are VERY surprising. Deinonychus and Unenlagia, for example, rank 76-80 and 72 respectively. These are some big ass theropods, so to see them within this range certainly makes the hypothesis that they could fly as at least juveniles much more credible.
Then there’s Unenlagiinae being a basically cosmopolitan clade, including both european taxa as well as DAKOTARAPTOR and Rahonavis to tie it all together. So basically they were like ratites, with flying ancestors and multiple flight losses and gigantism. Nice.
Flying up the tree baby!
Now the study as a whole prefers a polyphyletic origin of dinosaur flight, with basal paravians being flightless and then several clades becoming volant. Fair enough, but test on Pelecanimus first and then we’ll talk.
Can’t wait for the aneurisms this will cause on haters.
