Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-lvwk9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-06T02:38:24.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Origin of Birds and of Avian Flight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2017

John H. Ostrom
John H. Ostrom*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics and Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In recent years, one of the most exciting and important revelations in all of paleontology has been clarification of many of the details surrounding the question of the origin of birds. This has been a persistant enigma for centuries. Today, it is perhaps the hottest topic among challenges before us and it appears closer to a near unanimous opinion than ever before.

Type
Research Article
Information
Short Courses in Paleontology , Volume 7: Major Features of Vertebrate Evolution , 1994 , pp. 160 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altangarel, P., Norell, M.A., Chiappe, L.M., and Clark, J.M. 1993. Flightless bird from the Cretaceous of Mongolia. Nature, 362: 623–626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broom, R. 1908. On the early development of the appendicular skeleton of the ostrich, with remarks on the origin of birds. Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society, 16: 355–368.Google Scholar
Broom, R. 1913. On the south African pseudosuchian Euparkeria and allied genera. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1913: 619–633.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caple, G., Balda, R.P., and Willis, W.R. 1983. The physics of leaping animals and the evolution of pre-flight. American Naturalist, 121: 455–476.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, S. 1991. Cranial anatomy and relationships of a new Triassic bird. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B, 332: 277–346.Google Scholar
Feduccia, A., and Wild, R. 1993. Birdlike characters in the Triassic archosaur Megalancosaurus . Naturwissenschaften, 80: 564–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fürbringer, M. 1888. Untersuchungen zür Morphologie und Systematik der Vögel. Holkema, Amsterdam, 1751 p.Google Scholar
Gauthier, J. 1986. Saurischian monophyly and the origin of birds. In Padian, K. (ed.), The Origin of Birds and the Evolution of Flight. Memoirs California Academy of Sciences, 8: 1–55.Google Scholar
Gauthier, J., and Padian, K. 1985. Phylogenetic, functional, and aerodynamic analyses of the origin of birds and their flight. In Hecht, M. K., Ostrom, J. H., Viohl, G., and Wellnhofer, P. (eds.), The Beginnings of Birds. Freunde des Jura-Museums, Eichstätt, 382p.Google Scholar
Gegenbaur, C. 1878. Grundriss der vergleichenden Anatomie. W. Engelmann, Leipzig. 655 p.Google Scholar
Haeckel, E.H.P.A. 1866. Generelle Morphologie der Organismen. G. Reiner, Berlin. 574 p.Google Scholar
Hecht, M.K. and Tarsitano, S. 1982. The paleobiology and phylogenetic position of Archaeopteryx . Géobios, Mémoire Speciale 6: 141–149.Google Scholar
Heilmann, G. 1916. Fuglenes Afstamning. Bogtrykkeri, Copenhagen, 398 p.Google Scholar
Heilmann, G. 1926. The Origin of Birds. Witherby, London, 208 p.Google Scholar
Heller, F. 1959. Ein dritter Archaeopteryx Fund aus den Solnhofener Plattenkalken von Langenaltheim/Mfr. Erlanger. Geologisches Abhandlungen, 31:1–25.Google Scholar
Huxley, T.H. 1868. On the animals which are most nearly intermediate between the birds and reptiles. Annual Magazine of Natural History, London, (4) 2: 66–75.Google Scholar
Kurochkin, E.N. 1982. Novi otrjad ptizt iz nizhnego mela Mongolii. Dokladi Akademii Nauk SSSR 262 (2): 452–455.Google Scholar
Marsh, O.C. 1877. Introduction and succession of vertebrate life in America. Proceedings of the American Association of the Advancement of Science, 1877:211–258.Google Scholar
Marsh, O.C. 1880. Odontornithes: A monograph on the extinct toothed birds of North America. Report of the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. Vol. 7: 1–201.Google Scholar
Mayr, F.X. 1973. Ein Neuer Archaeopteryx-Fund . Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 47: 17–24.Google Scholar
Nopcsa, F. 1907. Ideas on the origin of flight. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1907: 223–236.Google Scholar
Osborn, H.F. 1900. Reconsideration of the evidence for a common dinosaur-avian stem in the Permian. American Naturalist, 34: 777–799.Google Scholar
Osborn, H.F. 1903. Ornitholestes hermanni, a new compsognathoid dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 19:459–464.Google Scholar
Ostrom, J.H. 1970. Archaeopteryx: Notice of a “new” specimen. Science, 170: 537–538.Google Scholar
Ostrom, J.H. 1973. The ancestry of birds. Nature, 242:136.Google Scholar
Ostrom, J.H. 1974. Archaeopteryx and the origin of flight. Quarterly Review of Biology, 49: 27–47.Google Scholar
Ostrom, J.H. 1975. The origin of birds. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 3:55–77.Google Scholar
Ostrom, J.H. 1976. Archaeopteryx and the origin of birds. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London, 8(2): 91–182.Google Scholar
Ostrom, J.H. 1979. Bird flight: How did it begin? American Scientist, 67:46–56.Google Scholar
Owen, R. 1863. On the Archaeopteryx of von Meyer, with a description of the fossil remains of a long tailed species from the lithographic stone of Solenhofen. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 153: 33–47.Google Scholar
Owen, R. 1875. Monograph of the fossil reptiles of the Liassic formations II. Pterosauria. Palaeontological Society Monographs, 41–81.Google Scholar
Parker, W.K. 1887. On the morphology of birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society, 42: 52–58.Google Scholar
Petronievics, B. 1925. Über die Berliner Archaeornis . Beitrag zür Osteologie der Archaeornithese. Annales Geologisches der Peninsula Balken, 8: 37–57.Google Scholar
Sanz, J.L., Bonaparte, J.F. and Lacasa, A. 1988. Unusual Early Cretaceous birds from Spain. Nature, 331: 433–435.Google Scholar
Seeley, H.G. 1881. Prof. Carl Vogt on the Archaeopteryx . Geological Magazine, (2) 8: 300–309.Google Scholar
Sereno, P.C., and Chenggang, R. 1992. Early evolution of avian flight and perching: New evidence from the Lower Cretaceous of China. Nature, 255: 845–848.Google Scholar
Tarsitano, S., and Hecht, M.K. 1980. A reconsideration of the reptilian relationships of Archaeopteryx . Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society of London, 69 (2): 149–182.Google Scholar
Vazquez, R.J. 1993. Functional morphology of the avian wing and its implications for the flight capabilities of Archaeopteryx. (Unpublished Yale University Ph.D. Dissertation, 170 p.)Google Scholar
Vogt, C. 1879. Archaeopteryx, ein Zwischengleid zwischen den Vögel und Reptilien. Naturforscher, Berlin, 1879: 401–404.Google Scholar
Walker, A.D. 1972. New light on the origin of birds and crocodiles. Nature, 237: 257–263.Google Scholar
Wellnhofer, P. 1988. A new specimen of Archaeopteryx . Science, 240:1790–1792.Google Scholar
Wellnhofer, P. 1993. Das siebte Exemplar von Archaeopteryx aus den Solnhofener Schichten. Archaeopteryx, 11: 1–48.Google Scholar
Wiedersheim, R.E.E. 1884. Die Stammesentwicklung der Vögel. Biologisches Zentralblatt, 3: 654–695.Google Scholar
Williston, S.W. 1879. Are birds from Kansas derived from dinosaurs? Kansas City Review of Science, 3:457–460.Google Scholar
Zhou, Z., Jin, F. and Zhang, J. 1992. Preliminary report on a Mesozoic bird from Liaoning, China. Chinese Science Bulletin, 37: 1365–1368.Google Scholar