What use is half a wing? This question was posed to Charles Darwin nearly 150 years ago and remains a potent challenge to those striving to explain how transitional animal forms may have functioned and behaved. Providing insight into the evolutionary history of birds as they emerged from their dinosaur ancestors remains a challenge. And despite flight being the most common form of animal locomotion, only recently have we begun to understand how specific avian internal structures (e.g., skeletal, muscular, neural) function during locomotion (e.g., flight, walking, flap-running). Wing-assisted incline running (WAIR) represents locomotor strategy involving morphological and behavioral traits that permit partially- and fully-developed wings of ground birds to assist their powerful hindlimbs as they retreat to an elevated refuge. Apparently common among living ground birds, WAIR is argued to represent the most straight-forward explanation elucidating the origin and evolution of avian flight. In this study, the developmental anatomy and locomotor performance of various avian species is explored in order to better understand how legs and wings work in concert to move the animal. It is suggested that dinosaur ancestors may have used their proto-wings (half a wing) and legs simultaneously to help them search for food, escape predators, and traverse complex 3-D environments. Using high-speed video, force plates, accelerometers, and laser imaging, the important biophysical parameters during the locomotion of young and adult birds will be quantified. The project will provide for interdisciplinary training of students and the PI will continue public outreach activities, particularly those aspects featuring his work in the mass media.
