====== Feather evolution ======

It has been known since the mid 1800s that many species of dinosaur had 'feathers'. Until the 1970s, it was widely assumed that the evolution of feathers happened concurrently as animals became able to 'glide' or fly.

In the 1970s, fossils of several species of// theropod// dinosaurs - which by their anatomical structure clearly could //not// have flown - were found to be covered in well-developed feathers. These discoveries led biologists to consider the possibility that feathers had evolved not to 'enable' flight, but that some of the dinosaur species exploited the fact that they already had them in order to attempt flight.

There are now several theories regarding feather's evolutionary history. These include the idea that they evolved as :

  * Insulation against temperature extremes
  * As a 'display' mechanism
  * As a mechanism for gaining traction when climbing

What //is// known is that feathers evolved from gradual modifications to already-existing scales.

See: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feather_development#Evolution_of_feathers|Wikipedia]]

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Also see : [[content:life_sciences:zoology:avian_flight]]