{"id":642698,"date":"2026-08-18T00:52:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/642698\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T00:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:52:21","slug":"archaeopteryx-took-off-with-series-of-hops-not-one-big-leap-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/642698\/","title":{"rendered":"Archaeopteryx Took Off with Series of Hops, Not One Big Leap: Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archaeopteryx \u2014 the first ever bird to inhabit the Earth \u2014 may have hopped its way into the air, rather than launching with the single powerful leap modern birds use, according to a new biomechanical study<\/a> published in the journal Developmental Biology.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

An illustration of Archaeopteryx. Image credit: Mark Witton.<\/p>\n

Archaeopteryx<\/a> lived in what is now Germany during the Jurassic period, approximately 150 million years ago.<\/p>\n

Regarded as the first-known bird, it possessed primitive traits like teeth and a long bony tail.<\/p>\n

It also had limited shoulder mobility and no breastbone, which hampered its ability to quickly reach flight speed. Exactly how it left the ground<\/a> has, until now, remained a puzzle.<\/p>\n

\u201cArchaeopteryx is the first real bird,\u201d said University of Southampton\u2019s Dr. Neil Gostling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was covered in feathers and possessed wings, but also retained a number of distinctly dinosaur features, such as a long bony tail, claws on separate fingers, and teeth in a beakless jaw.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a particularly well developed \u2018bird\u2019 compared to those we know today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know Archaeopteryx couldn\u2019t rely on its wings to take off \u2014 with no keeled sternum, and a shoulder that couldn\u2019t lift the wing above the back \u2014 so we asked what its legs could contribute,\u201d said University of Southampton\u2019s Professor Markus Heller.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out that is where take-off is won: the legs generate the force, and the wings take over afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the study, the researchers built a detailed musculoskeletal computer model of the 150-million-year-old creature\u2019s hindlimbs, scaling data from living birds to Archaeopteryx\u2019s anatomy.<\/p>\n

They suspected the animal\u2019s wings could not have generated the forceful stroke modern birds rely on for takeoff.<\/p>\n

Instead, the study points to Archaeopteryx\u2019s unusually robust legs, which made up roughly 13% of its body mass, compared with 9-10% in living birds.<\/p>\n

The scientists calculated that a single jump could have propelled the animal to about 3 m\/sec, well short of the roughly 7 m\/sec needed for sustained flight.<\/p>\n

However, the model showed that two or three successive leaps, potentially combined with modest wing flapping in between, could have closed the gap.<\/p>\n

In one scenario, three unassisted jumps built up enough forward momentum that only a brief final flap was needed to reach flying speed. In another, two leaps separated by a wing downstroke achieved the same result even faster.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

An illustration of how Archaeopteryx could have taken off. Image credit: Science Graphic Design.<\/p>\n

The findings support a ground-up origin of powered flight, in which early birds gradually built up speed through repeated leaps \u2014 a strategy still observed in some ground-dwelling birds today, including crows and magpies \u2014 rather than the abrupt, high-force takeoff seen in most modern species.<\/p>\n

This incremental behavior may represent an evolutionary stepping stone toward the takeoff mechanics birds use now.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings show that a mid-sized, 400-gram Archaeopteryx could have achieved a sustainable flight speed of 7 m\/sec with three bipedal leaps, or with two bipedal leaps with a downward flap between jumps,\u201d said Dr. Erik Meilak, a researcher at the University of Southampton.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll birds push with their legs when they take-off,\u201d Dr. Gostling said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact up to 90% of the force required to get off the ground comes from the legs and then the wings take over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cArchaeopteryx would have either taken off with a leap, leap, leap and then lots of flapping, or a leap, a flap, another leap and more flapping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough today\u2019s birds can take-off with just one leap, we still see many, such as crows, magpies and seagulls, also using the multiple hop technique.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey use one leap if startled, stressed or threatened, or \u2014 like their ancestors \u2014 two or three or more if they are saving energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Erik A. Meilak et al. 2026. Hop, hop and away: On the take-off of Archaeopteryx using a multiple leaping mechanism. Developmental Biology 539: 57-64; doi: 10.1016\/j.ydbio.2026.07.018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Archaeopteryx \u2014 the first ever bird to inhabit the Earth \u2014 may have hopped its way into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[155547,271811,27375,23429,18,29615,6621,147867,147868,19,17,28931,24067,133,8103],"class_list":["post-642698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-archaeopteryx","tag-archaeopteryx-lithographica","tag-bird","tag-dinosaur","tag-eire","tag-flight","tag-germany","tag-hindlimb","tag-hopping","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jurassic","tag-reptile","tag-science","tag-wing"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117113778641090271","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}