Dinosaurs May Have Used Forelimb and Tail Feathers to Chase Prey, Biologists Say | Top Vip News

What are the origins of bird wings and tails? This is one of the key questions in the evolution of animals. It has long been accepted that its evolution began in feathered dinosaurs.

Some of these dinosaurs had feathers on their tails and small wing-like feathers on their forelimbs. These small wing-like structures called “protowings” are composed of special feathers known as pennaceous feathers, the stiff feathers found on the wings and tails of birds.

The ancient form of these feathers first emerged in dinosaurs during the Jurassic Period, and these dinosaurs, called Pennaraptorans, had protowings made of pennaceous feathers. However, these protowings were known to be too small for powered flight. Since we cannot travel back in time to observe their behavior, what dinosaurs did and how they behaved remains unanswered.

Various functions of protowings and tail feathers in bird ancestors have been considered since John Harold Ostrom first proposed the idea. 50 years ago that small predators used protowings to bring down insect prey Dinosaurs that live on the ground and follow their prey.. However, how small ‘protowings’ and feathered tails helped the dinosaur ancestors of birds in their lives has not been resolved.

TO new scientific collaboration involving a team of field biologists and integrative ecologists (Piotr G. Jablonski, Sang-im Lee, Jinseok Park, Sang Yun Bang and Jungmoon Ha), paleontologists (Yuong-Nam Lee and Minyoung Son) and roboticists (Hyungpil Moon and Jeongyeol Park), has proposed a new idea: the ‘color search hypothesis’. His article was published in Scientific Reports.

The name of the hypothesis provides a clue to its content. Some birds employ a ‘flush chase’ foraging strategy, using wing and/or tail displays to visually flush out hidden prey and chase flushed prey (e.g. Northern Nightingale, Linzy Videos). The hypothesis suggests that small, proto-winged dinosaurs used a similar strategy.

The hypothesis is based on years of detailed ornithological field studies on several species of insectivorous birds by a co-author of the current study, Piotr Jablonski and collaborators, as well as by Ron Mumme and collaborators (e.g. painted redstarthe Slate-throated redstarthe Spectacled Hummingbirdand the Hooded Warbler).

Studies on these birds have revealed that displaying contrasting plumage (often with black and white spots) on the wings and tails triggers the escape of prey and therefore increases foraging efficiency because the birds chase and They catch the escaping prey.

The neurobiology behind this relationship was also studied. It has been proposed by Piotr Jablonski and Nicholas Strausfeld, a leading expert on the arthropod nervous system, that sspecial neurons in insects are activated by simple properties of flush displays by flush-chasing insectivorous birds.

The chain chase hypothesis was first mentioned by Piotr Jablonski and his collaborators at the 2005 Gordon Research Conference on ‘Neuroethology: Behavior, Evolution and Neurobiology’, chaired by N. Strausfeld. Since then, the idea was developed and presented in International Ornithological Congress 2018and in the Society for Integrative Biology Annual Meeting 2023.