The Jesus Christ hypothesis for the evolution of flight

[n2doc]

December 18, 2008 4:21 PM

Michael Le Page, biology features editor



Did the ancestors of birds walk on water before they took to the air? This intriguing idea is known as the Jesus Christ dinosaur hypothesis.

It was inspired by the basilisk. Not the beast of the Chamber of Secrets, but the somewhat smaller "Jesus Christ" lizard found in Central and South America, which can walk on water on its hind legs. Or rather, it can run very fast across the water's surface - if it slows, it sinks.

Now, my mental picture of the earliest known "bird", Archaeopteryx, has always been of quite a large, hoatzin-like creature living in the depths of a rainforest.

In fact, all the fossils of this half-bird, half-dinosaur have been discovered in what was, 150 million years ago, a shallow tropical ocean surrounding an archipelago of coral islands. The absence of tree pollen suggests there were no forests in the region at all.

Archaeopteryx was also small, comparable in size to a magpie - or a basilisk lizard.

These observations led John Videler, now at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, to suggest that Archaeopteryx was in fact a shore bird, running up and down beaches and mud flats in search of food.
Videler, who studies the mechanics of flight and swimming, thinks it used its wings not to fly or glide, but to provide extra lift and thrust when running across the water from island to island. Many modern birds run across the water in this way before taking off.

more:

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2008/12/the-jesus-christ-hypothesis-fo.html