Smithsonian researcher Klara Widrig studies living birds to build 3D models of their ancestors’ anatomies, uncovering how ...

If feathers did not evolve first for flight, what other advantage could they have provided the creatures that had them? Some ...

The sky belonged to tiny pioneers millions of years before anything grew feathers. Fossil evidence shows that insects ac ...

Flight is a rare skill in the animal world. Among vertebrates, it evolved only three times: in bats, birds, and the long-extinct pterosaurs. Pterosaurs were the pioneers, taking to the skies more than ...

More than 99% of birds can fly. But that still leaves many species that evolved to be flightless, including penguins, ostriches, and kiwi birds. In a study in the journal Evolution, researchers ...

An ancient archaeopteryx fossil is offering new insight into the early evolution of birds from dinosaurs. Dating back around 150 million years, this remarkable discovery is helping scientists ...

Fossils reveal that prehistoric cicadas’ wings evolved to help them evade hungry predators with feathers and beaks, scientists say. By Jack Tamisiea Today, few critters are as abundant as cicadas.

Reconstruction of a Late Triassic landscape (approximately 215 million years ago). A lagerpetid, a close relative of pterosaurs, is perched on a rock, observing pterosaurs flying overhead. Tübingen, ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. Fossil discoveries unlock chapters of our planet’s storied ...

Want to help us out? Take the survey: https://s.si.edu/3lnUCaH Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don't miss any videos: https://s.si.edu/3rnWsfq The Wright Brothers were the first humans ...