Latest News:  

English>>Sci-Tech

Birds had four wings before setting on two: study

(Xinhua)

11:28, March 15, 2013

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- In order to achieve bipedal flight, birds first had to ditch two hind wings over the course of their evolution, according to a study to be published Friday in the journal Science.

Recently, several fossils have shown that some dinosaurs had large feathers on both fore limbs and hind limbs. But, until now, no examples of this four-winged body plan have been described in birds -- or even in their most recently extinct relatives.

Xiaoting Zheng, of Linyi University in China, and colleagues studied fossils in China's Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature and identified 11 primitive bird species with clear signs of feathered hind legs.

These findings suggest that this four-winged condition preceded the two-winged body plan, and that birds have gradually lost the feathers on their hind limbs over evolutionary time.

Such a transition from four wings to two probably happened while the birds were gaining more scales on their hind limbs and using them more for terrestrial locomotion, according to the researchers.

We Recommend:

China's weekly story (2013.2.28-3.8)

Art schools exams in Chinese style

Yao Ming, the CPPCC Member

Eye-catching girls taking arts school exams

Foxes seek food from oil workers in Xinjiang

Cool Chinese female airplane captains

'Fresh style' in Chinese cities

The best partners during ‘two sessions’

Daily life of female airborne security guard

Email|Print|Comments(Editor:WangXin、Zhang Qian)

Leave your comment0 comments

  1. Name

  

Selections for you


  1. China surveillance ships finish patrol

  2. Flying Leopard fighters in training

  3. DPRK top leader watches firing drill

  4. Panic over dead pigs prompts satire

  5. Hailstones diameter hit SW China

  6. Chile unveils world's largest observatory

  7. Centenarian couple become cewebrities

  8. Anchors join Shenzhen TV

  9. China's financial might takes shape

  10. Shoe surprise with an unexpected discount

Most Popular

Opinions

  1. Planning vital to diplomacy
  2. Loopholes for rich make estate tax meaningless
  3. How to start transformation and upgrading?
  4. Nation facing energy security threat: experts
  5. Plenty of hard work still to be done on rail reform
  6. 'Made in China' not equal to 'self-made in China'
  7. Efforts needed to nurture ethnic culture, language
  8. Filipina maids or local ayi?
  9. China won't take part in currency wars
  10. Long live the kingdom of bicycles!

What’s happening in China

When women earn bread, men are leftover

  1. Vigilance grows as dead pigs in river reach 7,545
  2. More than 1/10 adults has chronic kidney disease
  3. Knife-wielder killing 5 arrested in Xinjiang
  4. Officer dies from miscarriage after work
  5. High hopes for new food safety monitoring