The famous dino-bird Archaeopteryx may not have been a champion aviator but was fully capable of flying despite key skeletal differences from its modern cousins, according to a study.
Scientists said on Tuesday they had examined Archaeopteryx's wing architecture using state-of-the-art scanning and compared it to a range of birds, closely related dinosaurs and the extinct flying reptiles called pterosaurs. They concluded it could fly in bursts over relatively short distances like pheasants, peacocks and roadrunners.
Birds evolved in the Jurassic Period from small feathered dinosaurs, and represent the only dinosaur group to have survived the mass extinction event 66 million years ago.