Origin of avian flight Origin of avian flight Around 350 BCE, Aristotle and other philosophers of the time attempted to explain the aerodynamics of avian flight. Even after the discovery of the ancestral bird "Archaeopteryx" over 150 years ago, debates still persist regarding the evolution of flight. There are three leading hypotheses pertaining to avian flight: Pouncing Proavis model, Cursorial model, and Arboreal model. "Archaeopteryx", the oldest known ancestor of modern birds, could provide clues to the origin of avian flight. In March 2018, scientists reported that "Archaeopteryx" was likely capable of flight, but in a manner substantially different from that of modern birds.
Most recent common ancestor all of the modern population. Due to pedigree collapse, modern individuals may still exhibit clustering, due to vastly different contributions from each of ancestral population . Most recent common ancestor In biology and genealogy, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA, also last common ancestor (LCA), or concestor) of any set of organisms is the most recent individual from which all the organisms are directly descended. The term is also used in reference to the ancestry of groups of genes (haplotypes) rather than organisms. The MRCA of a set of individuals can sometimes be determined by referring to an established pedigree.