The Aviary


Flights of Fancy

Understanding these mechanisms of feather growth gives a whole new perspective on the unique beauty of feathers.

~ Richard Prum, evolutionary ornithologist

“Anchiornis huxleyi” Zhao Chuang Courtesy of Peking Natural Science-art Organization
Feathers are synonymous with the power of flight. Indeed, they have allowed birds an ability they share only with insects and bats. So it is not surprising that theories about the evolution of the feather were for a long time preoccupied with establishing the “obvious” connection between the emergence of feathers and the benefits of flight. Recent fossil discoveries, however, provide strong evidence that feathers likely evolved as means of communication, for sexual display perhaps, assuming this function long before they were of any use in flight. In fact, dinosaurs, not modern birds, were the first organisms to possess colorful plumage, as proven by chemical analyses of pigment- containing feathers in fossil finds such as Anchiornis huxleyi.