The Cornell Bird Lab’s Future of Flight Academy helps players understand the adaptations of birds that evolved to fly. The Academy presents a simplification of what we’ve learned from paleontologists and biologists, who still hotly debate how flight evolved in birds, with lots of fascinating scientific knowledge and questioning.
The Future of Flight
The final level of Flap to the Future allows players to explore life as a bird from the deep future. It is difficult to envision what birds will be like in 100 million years, as evolution builds on the features inherited from each genetic generation. However, if we can predict whether flight will stick around by investigating the costs and benefits of each adaptation introduced in previous levels, players are encouraged to do so.
Fun Facts About the Game Ecosystems
Tawa’s Ecosystem
In the background, a herd of Plateosaurus dinosaurs graze on the tall trees. These dinosaurs occupied habitats akin to those of modern crocodiles and developed a comparable physical structure. Smilosuchus, although not a direct ancestor of crocodiles, was a dinosaur (specifically, a kind of phytosaur). With its impressive jaws opening and closing, a carnivorous Smilosuchus emerges from the swamp. Players venture through a rocky environment adorned with plants from the era that included seed ferns, horsetails, and cycads. This floodplain dates back to 200 million years ago.
Microraptor’s Ecosystem
In this forest, 120 million years ago, a carnivorous Huaxiagnathus patrols the ground, while an ancient group of small mammals called Eomaia scurries over rocks. Along its tail, Microraptor, a snack-hunting dinosaur, has a tuft of feather-like bristles. Among the conifers and trees at the base of this forest, a herbivorous Psittacosaurus named mongoliensis explores and munches away.
American Robin’s Ecosystem
Inspired by the actual “Piglet Corner” that awaits the curious traveler, this scene features a roaming tractor and a hazardous barbed wire that the robin must watch out for. As it explores a pile of hay along the ground, the robin encounters Lumbricus terrestris, the most common earthworms in upstate New York. The robin also attempts to reach the top of a windmill and flap its wings to reach the treetops, taking inspiration from the agricultural station near Cornell’s Ornithology Lab.
Future Bird’s Ecosystem
The technology to manufacture viable eggs is maintained by bird descendants, who have advanced culturally beyond their species. The mongoose, a descendant of apes that swings in the treetops, has evolved a horn-like drill to search for eggs to eat. Crystals and rocks dominate the geologic landscape. Some organisms have adapted to thrive in this environment, including a small crowd of insects and the horsetail. However, the radioactive waters would have been toxic to modern-day species. Among them are extraordinary plants that have evolved parasol-like pods to help spread their seeds and carnivorous plants with sticky tentacles in full bloom. In the future marsh, under the shadow of a receding glacier, this version hosts a fascinating riot of plants.
rEVOLUTIONary Adaptation: Flapping Flight
Throughout the year, robins and numerous contemporary avian species possess the capability to migrate vast distances in order to exploit food and breeding resources in remote locations, all thanks to the development of flapping flight. These flight muscles constitute approximately 10% of robins’ total body weight and propel the wing movements using robust, well-developed breast muscles. The lift is achieved through the presence of elongated, rigid flight feathers, while the propulsion generated from flapping relies on the ability to even fly short distances. Analyzing the bird family tree reveals that penguins, despite being flightless, have evolved from a flying ancestor. Modern birds, the sole surviving descendants of dinosaurs, are characterized by their ability to engage in flapping flight, which serves as a defining feature. The American Robin, a contemporary passerine bird or songbird, initially experiences the exhilaration of flapping flight as fledglings.
In order to reproduce or survive in long-distance flights, dinosaurs had to evolve more complex limbs with proto-wings and feathers. These proto-wings, covered in fuzz, helped them to thrive. However, the evolutionary changes necessary for flight did not appear suddenly, but rather happened gradually through small changes. Specialists have been studying how ground-dwelling dinosaurs evolved into flying creatures over millions of years. But we have skipped over some of the most important evolutionary adaptations for flight. In the future, we might discover more about these adaptations by studying how dinosaurs flapped their wings.
What were the useful proto-wings for? This is the key question for understanding the evolution of flight, which was soon raised as Charles Darwin presented the theory of evolution by natural selection. Critics of Darwin, including prominent ones, challenged the use of a wing half as an intermediate step in the series of evolution.
There is no consensus in the scientific community on this active research topic. Some have focused on how even small wings might have helped our bird ancestors safely glide down from high places. Modern scientists have suggested that small wings may have helped our bird ancestors get extra thrust when flapping up steep slopes to escape predators. They have supported the theory by watching partridge chicks flapping their short wings as they climb steep inclines.
Throughout the course of existence, this remains one of the most remarkable advancements in evolution. As new fossil findings are unearthed, the scientific community will gradually unravel more of this evolutionary enigma, whether flight originated from the ground or descended from the trees.
rEVOLUTIONary Adaptation: Feathers
They were still bound to Earth, although their ancestors had bird feathers in the Late Triassic. Dinosaurs also helped to show off or stay camouflaged, perhaps using colors and patterns on their feathers. Feathers probably helped them stay warm, as most theropods had their bodies covered in feathers, which scientists now believe is evidence of “dino fuzz.” One big clue connecting birds to this group of dinosaurs comes from the many simple impressions of feathers found on discovered fossils over the past few decades. There is little debate among scientists that birds evolved from dinosaurs, like the theropod Tawa. Players start the game as a small dinosaur named Tawa, who lived 200 million years ago in the floodplains of what is now the American Southwest.
rEVOLUTIONary Adaptation: Flight Feathers
During the time of Microraptor, one of the key adaptations that emerged was feathers, which helped some birds and dinosaurs become airborne. By looking at Microraptor, we can gain insight into one of the evolutionary paths to flight, at least among the earliest birds, until paleontologists discovered fossils. Microraptor is not a direct ancestor of modern birds or even a direct ancestor of birds, but rather an offshoot of the larger group of theropod dinosaurs. Some scientists have suggested that Microraptor may have been able to take off from the ground and flap its wings to sustain short flights. Though Microraptor did not have the flight muscles to sustain long flights, the feathers provided lift and helped the animal stay airborne. With its specialized flight feathers on all four limbs, Microraptor appears to have been a tree climber and a gliding specialist. In the future, Microraptor could potentially be one of the first players to catch air and flap.