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

模拟有羽毛的兽脚亚目恐龙的跳跃能力及其对动力飞行进化新理论的影响

• 批准号: 1941044
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Southampton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1941044
• 关键词: Modelling; leaping; capabilities; feathered; theropods

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.

1.5亿年前，鸟类进化出动力飞行。鸟类的飞行究竟是如何进化的，这是一个相当有争议的话题，但它被认为是通过“翅膀辅助倾斜运行”或“从树上下来”发生的。然而，很少有活着的鸟会跑起来起飞，更少的鸟会爬上树或壁架，然后“掉”下来飞行，而是跳起来。当活着的鸟起飞时，它们的腿执行大部分的初始工作来加速它们的身体，并且已经表明腿提供高达80%的进入空气所需的力。此外，如果小型兽脚亚目恐龙通过跳跃来躲避捕食者，甚至具有微小的羽毛前肢，那么它们的跳跃范围可能会大大扩展，而在这些特征中只有一个是可用的。因此，本项目的基本假设是，兽脚亚目恐龙通过起跳跳跃进化出飞行能力。为了探索这一假设，我们将系统地探索活体鸟类起跳的生物力学，并应用3D肌肉骨骼建模框架和从中获得的数据来建模和理解兽脚亚目恐龙的起跳条件。