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Prior to their existence on birds, feathers were present on the bodies of many dinosaur species. Through natural selection, feathers became more common among the animals as their wings developed over the course of tens of millions of years. [6] The smooth surface of feathers on a bird's body helps to reduce friction while in flight.
The basal bird Archaeopteryx, from the Jurassic, is well known as one of the first "missing links" to be found in support of evolution in the late 19th century. Though it is not considered a direct ancestor of modern birds, it gives a fair representation of how flight evolved and how the very first bird might have looked.
A turning point came in the early twentieth century with the writings of Gerhard Heilmann of Denmark.An artist by trade, Heilmann had a scholarly interest in birds and from 1913 to 1916, expanding on earlier work by Othenio Abel, [12] published the results of his research in several parts, dealing with the anatomy, embryology, behavior, paleontology, and evolution of birds. [13]
The tail feathers are used to control flight acting as rudder and brake, only some of these feathers are as firmly attached as the bird's primaries. Contour feathers are arranged on the body of the bird in the manner of roof tiles. The tips of these feathers are waterproof and help protect the bird from the elements, while the inner parts of ...
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Of all the birds that fly north to Ohio each spring, scarlet tanagers could be considered the most recognizable. "They have this rich, almost eye-popping scarlet body with black wings," Emmert ...
Several studies of feather development in the embryos of modern birds, coupled with the distribution of feather types among various prehistoric bird precursors, have allowed scientists to attempt a reconstruction of the sequence in which feathers first evolved and developed into the types found on modern birds. Feather evolution was broken down ...
A bird’s crest is a tuft of feathers on its head — think of the red crown of a cardinal. A pterosaur’s crest consists of skin stretched over slender bones.