Primary feather vane asymmetry should not be used to predict the flight capabilities of feathered fossils

• 来源期刊: 科学通报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2017,（18）
• 页码范围: 1227-1228
• 页数: 2页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

Reconstructing flight abilities of fossil birds from preserved wings and feathers is an important goal if we are to understand the evolution of flight.Wing-shape is known to correlate well with bird flight style [1],but functional wing-shape is almost impossible to reconstruct from fossils with a high degree of certainty.In contrast,however,individual primary feathers are often preserved with high fidelity and therefore,offer the possibility of a diagnostic tool for determining flight capabilities in fossil taxa.In living birds,the primary or flight feathers,which make up the distal section of the wing in birds are the most mechanically derived feathers and are typically asymmetric.Feather asymmetry (i.e.trailing edge vane width/leading edge vane width) affects the dynamic behaviour of the primary feathers [2],it is plausible to predict that feather vane asymmetry alone could be indicative of a bird's flight capabilities.