Response to Serrano and Chiappe

Michael Pittman; Michael B Habib; T Alexander Dececchi; Hans C E Larsson; Rui Pei; Thomas G Kaye; Mark A Norell; Stephen L Brusatte; Xing Xu

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.059

Response to Serrano and Chiappe

Curr Biol. 2021 Apr 26;31(8):R372-R373. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.059.

Authors

Michael Pittman¹, Michael B Habib², T Alexander Dececchi³, Hans C E Larsson⁴, Rui Pei⁵, Thomas G Kaye⁶, Mark A Norell⁷, Stephen L Brusatte⁸, Xing Xu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Vertebrate Palaeontology Laboratory, Research Division for Earth and Planetary Science, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China. Electronic address: mpittman@hku.hk.
² Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA.
³ Division of Natural Sciences, Mount Marty University, Yankton, SD 57078, USA.
⁴ Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A 0C4, Canada.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China.
⁶ Foundation for Scientific Advancement, Sierra Vista, AZ 85650, USA.
⁷ Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York City, NY 10024, USA.
⁸ School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FE, UK.

PMID: 33905690
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.059

Abstract

In the recent study in Current Biology by Pei and colleagues¹, we used two proxies - wing loading and specific lift - to reconstruct powered flight potential across the vaned feathered fossil pennaraptorans. The results recovered multiple origins of powered flight. We respectfully disagree with the criticism raised by Serrano and Chiappe² that wing loading and specific lift, used in sequence, fail to discriminate between powered flight and gliding. We will explain this in reference to our original conservative approach.

Publication types

Letter
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Comment

MeSH terms

Fossils*
Sports*