Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: The lack of modern flight adaptations and flight maneuverability makes both ground-up take off and arboreal foraging of Archaeopteryx extremely improbable (even if trees were present in a part of its habitat). A combination of heights-down take-off and ground foraging necessitated a swift terrestrial escape to a launching site and probably climbing elevated objects. Archaeopteryx does not show any distinctive cursorial specialization and the leg intramembral ratios suggest a slow-pace to multimode (i.e., using various gaits) forager, similar in behavior to today's tinamous and most galliforms. Archaeopteryx was an escape runner, not a cursorial predator. The limbs of Archaeopteryx and (non-avian) theropods reveal substantial functional differences, which make their similarities even more likely to be synapomorphic. KEY WORDS. Archaeopteryx. Birds. Paleobiological reconstruction. Flight. Locomotion. Foraging. Jurassic.
Author: Andrzej Elżanowski
Institution: University of Wrocław
Language: Spanish
Subfield: Paleontology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2612318826