Biologist Ken Dial's study of how young birds use their developing wings sheds light on the evolution of flight in birds.

At the University of Montana’s Flight Lab, Ken Dial has been researching the mechanics of bird flight. His experiments with young birds that are learning to fly provide new evidence for how flight might have evolved in a group of feathered theropod dinosaurs. Critics of evolutionary theory had asked Charles Darwin the question “what use is half a wing?” – in other words, what evolutionary advantage would a feathered limb, the precursor to a wing, provide? Dial’s research suggests an answer.

Download this film and find related materials and activities at HHMI BioInteractive: http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/origin-flight-what-use-half-wing