Comments on: Tree dwelling animals were first to fly, study shows http://smithsonianscience.org/2011/10/tree-dwelling-animals-were-first-to-fly-study-shows/ News about the Smithsonian’s research in the fields of anthropology, astrophysics, conservation biology, geology, materials science, paleontology, zoology, and global climate change. Mon, 08 Dec 2014 08:04:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1 By: Rikki Hall http://smithsonianscience.org/2011/10/tree-dwelling-animals-were-first-to-fly-study-shows/#comment-16876 Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:18:48 +0000 http://smithsonianscience.org/?p=15605#comment-16876 It’s so tedious that the origin-of-flight scenario is always portrayed as ground-up vs. tree-down. It’s neither. In both insects and birds, wings started out as swimming organs in buoyant water and then took that acquired power to far more challenging aerial environments.

Many of the earliest avian fossils are aquatic animals similar to loons. The earliest insect fossils are mayflies and dragonflies. Terrestrial origin of flight is one of those debilitating paradigms that needs a brutal death and unceremonious burial.

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