TY - JOUR T1 - Shifts in stability and control effectiveness during evolution of the Avialae support aerial manoeuvring hypotheses for flight origins 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/2014/01/14/001750.abstract N2 - The capacity for aerial manoeuvring shaped the evolution of flying animals. Here we evaluate consequences of aviaian morphology for aerial performance1, 2 by quantifying static stability and control effectiveness of physical models3 for numerous taxa sampled from within the lineage leading to birds (Avialae4). Results of aerodynamic testing are mapped phylogenetically5–9 to examine how manoeuvring characteristics correlate with tail shortening, fore-and hindwing elaboration, and other morphological features10. In the evolution of the Avialae 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 manoeuvring preceded the evolution of strong power stroke. The timing of shifts suggests features normally considered in light of development of a power stroke also play important roles in control. ER -