Modelling the leaping capabilities of feathered theropods and the implications for a novel theory of the evolution of powered flight

Over 150 million years ago birds evolved powered flight. How exactly birds' flight evolved is subject of considerable debate, but it is thought to have occurred via 'wing assisted incline running' or from 'the trees down'. However, very few living birds run to take off and even fewer climb a tree or ledge and then 'fall' into flight, instead they jump. When living birds take off their legs perform most of the initial work to accelerate their bodies and it has been shown that the legs provide up to 80% of the force required to get into the air. Moreover, if small theropods evaded predators with a jump and featured even tiny feathered fore limbs, their jump would likely have had a greatly extended range compared to the conditions in which only one of these features were available to them. The underlying hypothesis of this project is therefore that theropod dinosaurs evolved flight via a take-off jump.

To explore this hypothesis we will systematically explore the biomechanics of the take-off in living birds and apply the 3D musculoskeletal modelling framework and data derived from these to model and understand the take-off conditions in theropod dinosaurs.