Evolution of Bird Flight
from Ask A Biologist Podcast Hosted by Dr. Biology Talks with Ken Dial
To fly like a bird. It's the dream of many people - being able to soar in the air without a plane or other device. But have birds always been masters of the sky? Dr. Biology talks with ornithologist Ken Dial about the evolution of bird flight and what he and other scientists have learned with the help of some modern baby dinosaurs (birds). Oh yes, and can penguins fly? If you have not already, please subscribe to the podcast so you can be notified about new episodes.
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Chapters
- 0:00 Intro
- 1:49 More animals fly than any other form of movement.
- 3:21 When did birds begin to fly?
- 4:43 Past hypotheses of bird flight evolution.
- 5:38 Tree down hypothesis. [Arboreal flight]
- 6:03 Ran and took to the air by beating their wing. [Cursorial flight]
- 6:16 What is your new hypothesis of bird flight?
- 7:48 What have the baby birds been teaching you about bird flight evolution?
- 9:25 Traction and the function of wings.
- 11:03 Airplanes, birds, gliding and flapping - how are they different? [basics of flight - thrust and lift]
- 12:37 Intermittent - bounding flight.
- 13:57 Undulating flyers.
- 14:10 Steady flapping birds.
- 15:09 There is still lots to learn about flight for future scientists.
- 16:01 How do humming birds fly and hover?
- 17:41 Tools of art and science used in research. [Maya software, high-speed X-ray and video movies]
- 20:39 Use of wind tunnels.
- 21:14 What characteristics of flight do birds all share? [10,000 species of birds]
- 22:37 Do penguins fly?
- 23:38 When did you know you wanted to be a scientist?
- 24:40 What would you do if you could not be a biologist?
- 26:35 What advice do you have for a future scientist?
- 28:02 Sign-off [University of Montana Flight Lab]
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