TY - JOUR T1 - Shifts in stability and control effectiveness during evolution of Paraves support aerial maneuvering hypotheses for flight origin JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/001750 SP - 001750 AU - Dennis Evangelista AU - Sharlene Cam AU - Tony Huynh AU - Austin Kwong AU - Homayun Mehrabani AU - Kyle Tse AU - Robert Dudley Y1 - 2014/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2014/01/11/001750.abstract N2 - The capacity for aerial maneuvering was likely a major influence on the evolution of flying animals. Here we evaluate consequences of paravian morphology for aerial performance (Dudley and Yanoviak, 2011; Smith, 1952) by quantifying static stability and control effectiveness of physical models (Evangelista et al., 2014) for numerous taxa sampled from within the lineage leading to birds (Paraves, Xu et al., 2011; Gauthier and Padian, 1985). Results of aerodynamic testing are mapped phylogenetically (Maddison and Maddison, 2010; Zhou and Li, 2010; Li et al., 2010; O’Connor et al., 2011; Cracraft et al., 2004) to examine how maneuvering characteristics correlate with tail shortening, fore-and hindwing elaboration, and other morphological features. In the evolution of Paraves we observe shifts from static stability to inherently unstable aerial planforms; control effectiveness also migrated from tails to the forewings. These shifts suggest that some degree of aerodynamic control and and capacity for maneuvering preceded the evolution of strong power stroke. The timing of shifts also suggests features normally considered in light of development of a power stroke may play important roles in control. ER -