HISTORY OF LIFE

1. The Origin of Life
   
2. Earth's Earliest Life
   
3. Sex and Nuclei: Eukaryotes
   
4. The Evolution of Animals
   
5. Life in a Changing World
   
6. Extinction
   
7. The Early Vertebrates
   
8. Leaving the Water
   
9. Amphibians and Reptiles
   
10. Reptiles and Thermoregulation
    
11. Triassic Takeover
    
12. Dinosaurs
    
13. Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs?
    
14. The Evolution of Flight
    
15. The Origin of Mammals
    
16. Marine Reptiles
    
17. Why Flowers are Beautiful
    
18. The End of the Dinosaurs
    
19. Cenozoic Mammals
    
20. Geography and Evolution
    
21. Primates
    
22. Evolving Toward Humans
    
23. The Ice Age
    
24. Humans and the Ice Age
    

The Evolution of Flight

Introduction

• UC Berkeley's Introduction to the Vertebrate Flight
  
  
• The discovery of a dromaeosaur with feathers intact

First Fliers

• Ohio State University's Weed Seed Ecology Program
• Smithsonian's Lesson Plans for How Things Fly

Flight in Insects

• The Development of Insect Flight
• Flapping Flight in Dragonflies

Parachuting Vertebrates

• Legend of the Meeps Island Flying Frog
• Overview of Gliding and Parachuting Vertebrates
• Drawings of Gliding and Parachuting Vertebrates
• The Permian Gliding Lepidosaur, Coelurosauravus (Seel-oo-ro-saur-a-vus)
• The Late Triassic Gliding Lepidosaur, Kuehneosaurus
• The Late Triassic Gliding Lepidosaur, Icarosaurus was for Sale 8^( but a Replica is Cheaper
• More on Icarosaurus and the Living Lizard Glider Draco
• The Late Triassic Gliding Lepidosaur, Sharovipteryx or a
  More Extensive Site by Son of Alexander Sharov, Discover of Sharovipteryx and Longisquama
• The Late Triassic Gliding Lepidosaur, Longisquama
  
  

Pterosaurs

• Introduction to Pterosaurs
• Pterosaur Home Page Website
• Pterosaurian Flight
• Lockley's Hypothesis on How Pterosaurs Walked
• Brief Summary of Facts on Pteranodon
• Introduction to Pteranodon

Visit the Source of this Image of Archaeopteryx
at The Dinosaur Art of Joe Tucciarone Website

Birds

• The Earliest Known Bird: Archaeopteryx
• All About Archaeopteryx
• A Recent Inexpensive Book with Great Reviews:
  Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight.
• American Museum's Feature on Archaeopteryx Taking Flight
• Known Archaeopteryx Fossils are from Solnhofen Limestones
• Confuciusornis ("Confucius bird") Flew in China 120 Ma.
• Fossil Record of Birds
  
  Visit Bambiraptor
  © 2000 David Burnham and the University of Kansas Paleontological Institute

• Bambiraptor: A Newly Discovered 72 Ma Bird-like Therapod Dinosaur from Montana or Here
• National Geographic's 1999 Report on Archaeoraptor is Revealed to be a Hoax!
• National Geographic's Own Press Release
• The Outstanding Recent Book
  The Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds.
• Hypotheses for the Origin of Flight
• Models of Early Vertebrate Fliers (In German)
• John Ostrom's Recent Discovery of 120 Mya Feathered Dinosaurs in China
• More on the Feathered Dinosaur Sinosauropteryx prima or Here or Here or View Feathers
• John Ostrom's Home Page
• Expert on Saurian Cladistics: Jacques Gauthier
• Interview with Mark Norrell, Co-Discoverer of Mononychus
• Fossil Hunting in the Flaming Cliffs of the Mongolian Gobi Desert
• Read the Fascinating Narrative on the First American Expeditions to the Gobi in Nearly 70 Years by Expedition Leader, Michael Novacek:
  
  Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs.
• Links on Dinosaur-Bird Links
• An Early Cretaceous Flying Bird: Nanantius eos
• Large (2 m) Flightless Seabird Hesperornis regalis Swam Underwater to Catch Fish (Paleo-Art Copyrighted by Dan Varner)
• Diatryma: Giant Flightless Eocene Bird Filling Predatory Role Vacated by Dinosaurs
• Searching for Titanus walleri, a Giant Phorusrhacid Flightless Killer Bird from Florida (2 Mya)
• The Legendary Giant Bird Roc was Probably an Elephant Bird
• Extinct Birds and their Eggs
• Size Comparison of Elephant Bird and Ostrich Eggs
• Boy Holding Elephant Bird Egg
• Giant Flying Bird: Merriam's Teratorn, at the Page Museum of the La Brea Tar Pits

Visit the Source of this Image of Flying Bat at
at Museum of Southwestern Biology Division of Mammals Website

Bats

• Bat Conservation International Website
• Bat Facts and Amazing Trivia
• Tree of Life Website on Bats