This is not sound related, but some members probably research more aspects
of birds than merely vocal behaviour.
-i
Nature Science Update
Fossil boosts trees-down start for flight
Four-winged dinosaur fuels debate over evolution of air-borne birds.
23 January 2003
HENRY GEE
The discovery in China of a remarkable dinosaur with birdlike feathers on its
hindlimbs and tail as well as its forelimbs will re-ignite debate about the
origins of birds, feathers and flight.
Xing Xu from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology
in Beijing and his colleagues found six specimens of the new, 77-cm-long
dinosaur in the fossil beds of Liaoning Province, in the north-east of China1.
They are believed to belong to a new species - Microraptor gui - of the
previously known genus Microraptor.
The researchers think that the animals lived between 124 and 145 million years
ago in trees and used their two pairs of wings, limbs outstretched, to glide
between branches - much as flying squirrels, though entirely unrelated, use
inter-limb skin flaps to leap from branch to branch.
The new specimens will certainly fuel the long-running argument about precisely
which group of extinct reptiles are birds' closest cousins.
Full text
http://www.nature.com/nsu/030120/030120-7.html
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