Re: Tiny feathered dino may have glided

On 10/25/24 8:55 AM, RonO wrote:

https://www.science.org/content/article/glide-and-stride-tiny-feathered-dino-flapped-it-ran
 A sparrow sized raptor had an extrodinary stride length indicating that it may have glided between steps.  Maybe like a flying fish on land.
 There was once an old paper on the evolution of flight put up on TO around 20 years ago where a researcher shortened the feathers on the wings of a partridge so that it could not fly, but the birds were still facilitated in their running and maneuvering.  It could also run up a steeper incline using it partial wings.
 Ron Okimoto
 

You're thinking about Ken Dial's wing-assisted incline-running, or WAIR. It turns out that only anatomy already adapted for efficient, powered flight (i.e., as in modern birds) can be used for WAIR, so it can't be an intermediate step in flight evolution.