Shifts in stability and control effectiveness during evolution of Paraves support aerial maneuvering hypotheses for flight origin

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1 Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
2 Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
3 Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
5 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.435v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Biophysics, Evolutionary Studies, Paleontology, Zoology
Keywords
stability, control effectiveness, maneuvering, flight, evolution, Paraves, biomechanics, directed aerial descent
Copyright
© 2014 Evangelista et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Evangelista D, Cam S, Huynh T, Kwong A, Mehrabani H, Tse K, Dudley R. 2014. Shifts in stability and control effectiveness during evolution of Paraves support aerial maneuvering hypotheses for flight origin. PeerJ PrePrints 2:e435v1

Abstract

The capacity for aerial maneuvering was likely a major influence on the evolution of flying animals. Here we evaluate consequences of paravian morphology for aerial performance by quantifying static stability and control effectiveness of physical models for numerous taxa sampled from within the lineage leading to birds (Paraves). Results of aerodynamic testing are mapped phylogenetically to examine how maneuvering characteristics correlate with tail shortening, fore- and hind-wing elaboration, and other morphological features. In the evolution of Paraves we observe shifts from static stability to inherently unstable aerial platforms; control effectiveness also migrated from tails to the forewings. These shifts suggest that some degree of aerodynamic control and and capacity for maneuvering preceded the evolution of strong power stroke. The timing of shifts also suggests features normally considered in light of development of a power stroke may play important roles in control.

Author Comment

This PeerJ Preprint has also been submitted to PeerJ for peer review (manuscript 2367).

Supplemental Information

Supplemental figure and tables

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.435v1/supp-1