Birds and a dumb question about flying

Preamble: my car is in the shop and I have hours to kill. Never tried posting on my phone, diehard desktop fan. Full disclosure this is partly serious and partly trolly for my entertainment.

The actual thing: birds did not "start" as flying creatures, yes? Then what conditions allow a creature to go from ground dwelling to air dwelling?

I can understand that a feathered creature uses those feathers for a "speed boost" and further success leads to "improvements" on the idea but is their a specie specific starting point for it?

Can humans gain the gift do flight through multi-generational selective breeding or is it not possible for ma ape to turn bird? Are certain strains of animals locked into certain evolutionary trees?

a reply to: Purpapengus
We raise quail. We used to raise chickens and my daughter is apprenticing starting at afe 11 as a falconer.

Its instinct, physics etc... their bodies are built to respond to fight, or flight innately. Scare a young bird, left alone un a brooder, I assure you based on mechanics, instinct and fear...

that bird will fly

ETA.
no humans could not gain the ability to fly based on the same mechanics, lack of hollow bones, metabolism etc..

a reply to: Purpapengus

The entire body structure of birds is different than mammals. Their bones are light and hollow, they're respiratory system works and is hardened to rapid pressure changes.

Now, what you should be looking at is bats. Bats developed flight independently around 50 million years ago. Actually, both microbats and megabats(fruit bats and flying foxes) developed flight independently of eachother in seperate areas of the world at around the same time.

Bats have similar bodies to other mammals. The interesting thing is, their wings are actually hands that have elongated and became webbed. It's believed they they started gliding and over time developed stronger hands allowing true flight.

Not sure but I think birds having hollow bones aides their flight capabilities.

However look into some Dr. that beamed lasers through eggs/embryos from different animals it's a trip. I forget the exact name I'm sure if you Google "laser embryo experiments" or something similar it would show up.

Apparently it caused a mixing of the DNA.

a reply to: BlueJacket

But a bird is going to have bird responces. What none bird would work toward "dude! Flap them arms bro!"?

a reply to: dug88
Great insight with bats, appreciate it

a reply to: dug88
Star for that one. Gonna read up

originally posted by: Purpapengus
a reply to: BlueJacket

But a bird is going to have bird responces. What none bird would work toward "dude! Flap them arms bro!"?

Nothing would incite a human to flap his/arms to escape squat, maybe a dust storm.

Running, running is our "flappin" and than our reliance on hand tools as weapons.

We run, or we fight.

no fly

a reply to: BlueJacket
Does the base specie dictate the course? As in once ma animal has home enough down the mammal ape Ravi it can never go back to flight? And if so can a species be fated for extinction?

GOD ‘Am I a joke to you?’

a reply to: Purpapengus

a reply to: kingparrot

Consider the platypus.
If that's not a joke I don't know what is.


OP: There would need to be radical changes. Start with this, in order to keep a human aloft a wingspan of more than 7 meters would be required for a weight anywhere near that of even a small human. That's a lot of awkward.

a reply to: Purpapengus

Full disclosure this is partly serious and partly trolly for my entertainment.

Which part was serious?

a reply to: Zarniwoop

Don't mess with the joke, sir.

a reply to: Phage

Chandra Bahadur Dangi was the shortest recorded human. Would she be a starting link to flightful humans? Or an aberration because we somehow are not capable of evolving flight?

originally posted by: Purpapengus
Preamble: my car is in the shop and I have hours to kill. Never tried posting on my phone, diehard desktop fan. Full disclosure this is partly serious and partly trolly for my entertainment.

The actual thing: birds did not "start" as flying creatures, yes? Then what conditions allow a creature to go from ground dwelling to air dwelling?

I can understand that a feathered creature uses those feathers for a "speed boost" and further success leads to "improvements" on the idea but is their a specie specific starting point for it?

Can humans gain the gift do flight through multi-generational selective breeding or is it not possible for ma ape to turn bird? Are certain strains of animals locked into certain evolutionary trees?

its what dinosaurs turned into.

and now they think most dinosaurs were feathered.

a reply to: kingparrot

If gawd made every species, one of those, inevitably, was an "oopsie". "He regretted making man"

a reply to: Lysergic

So dinosaurs were always on a path to become a bird?
Can we determine the ultimate form of a species from the beginning? If so, is it wrong to save endangered species?

Have you seen the movie 'The fly'?



But wait, there already had to be a flying creature then.

I wasted some internet bandwith again here.

Oh, I know. It's Wikipedia, but it should help answer the OP. It's all conjecture, but gliding from branch to branch may have been a starting point, or perhaps glide assisted running.

Origin of birds

originally posted by: Purpapengus
a reply to: Lysergic

So dinosaurs were always on a path to become a bird?
Can we determine the ultimate form of a species from the beginning? If so, is it wrong to save endangered species?

Where do you think our reptilian overlords came from they are from the earth.