The wing assisted climbing I call clambering
If you clipped wing like you are supposed to, the ability to clamber is greatly reduced. Author would find me a tough audience on that alone.
On the whole, I think the author is getting it wrong with some of the intermediate steps leading to flight. First the proto-wing feathers played a major role in incubation / brooding young. Then a display function and / or aid in maneuvering at high speeds and possibly balancing. Next step almost certainly involved movement in trees and gliding where the wings simply gave better control without actual generation of thrust. At that point wings were still hands allowing proto-birds to climb like a mammal. During the early stages the proto-birds lacked the muscle mass in the breast needed produce thrust possible in even the weakest flying galliaformes like used in his demonstrations and our flocks.
My games can jump at least as good as any domestic chicken out there. Yet I can stop both flight and clambering by proper clipping. Bilateral clipping provides more complete denial of both activities than unilateral clipping. I may have to demonstrate this with an experiment this weekend.
If you clipped wing like you are supposed to, the ability to clamber is greatly reduced. Author would find me a tough audience on that alone.
On the whole, I think the author is getting it wrong with some of the intermediate steps leading to flight. First the proto-wing feathers played a major role in incubation / brooding young. Then a display function and / or aid in maneuvering at high speeds and possibly balancing. Next step almost certainly involved movement in trees and gliding where the wings simply gave better control without actual generation of thrust. At that point wings were still hands allowing proto-birds to climb like a mammal. During the early stages the proto-birds lacked the muscle mass in the breast needed produce thrust possible in even the weakest flying galliaformes like used in his demonstrations and our flocks.
My games can jump at least as good as any domestic chicken out there. Yet I can stop both flight and clambering by proper clipping. Bilateral clipping provides more complete denial of both activities than unilateral clipping. I may have to demonstrate this with an experiment this weekend.
