Grantmasters
Witness the Fitness
This is based on actual fossil evidence, especially the Rancor ;)
Seriously though: I went to a talk recently about some recent findings to do with this. Feathers came before flight for sure, but there seems to be some significant changes in cell size and genome length that would have selected for smallness.
There are some ideas that feathers and the flapping motion may have been associated with catching prey, leading to pectoral development etc.
Another hypothesis is that flapping would have assisted prey avoid capture, leading to greater fitness of species exhibiting the ability to flap their primitive wings.
Witness the Fitness
This is based on actual fossil evidence, especially the Rancor ;)
Seriously though: I went to a talk recently about some recent findings to do with this. Feathers came before flight for sure, but there seems to be some significant changes in cell size and genome length that would have selected for smallness.
There are some ideas that feathers and the flapping motion may have been associated with catching prey, leading to pectoral development etc.
Another hypothesis is that flapping would have assisted prey avoid capture, leading to greater fitness of species exhibiting the ability to flap their primitive wings.