AI Insight
Scientists have discovered why birds can fly while their closest living relatives, crocodiles and alligators, cannot, despite both groups being archosauriforms that share a common ancestor from approximately 250 million years ago. The research explains the evolutionary divergence between these two lineages that began near the start of the Triassic period, leading to dramatically different locomotion capabilities.
Why it matters
Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms that enabled flight in birds while their archosaur relatives remained terrestrial provides crucial insights into how major anatomical innovations arise. This knowledge contributes to our broader understanding of vertebrate evolution and the biological constraints that shape different evolutionary pathways.
Understand the Science
The closest living relatives of crocodiles and alligators are, perhaps surprisingly, birds. Both are archosauriforms, a group of species that originated about 250 million years ago near the beginning of the Triassic period.
Source: Crocodiles can't fly. Birds can. Scientists have finally figured out why