Flight capability and the pectoral girdle of Archaeopteryx

As the earliest birds known, the late Jurassic specimens of Archaeopteryx have been the object of great speculative interest. Ostrom'"' has argued that Archaeopteryx was a terrestrial, cursorial predator that represents a preflight stage in the origin of birds in which the forelimbs were used as nets to trap insects. So far, this has been challenged mainly on the grounds that such activity would have caused excessive feather wear*. The principal evidence for regarding Archaeopteryx as flightless, or at best an inept non-flapping glider, has come from interpretations of the structure of the pectoral girdle. The absence of an ossified sternum for attachment of flight muscles has long been cited. More recently, it has been argued that the structure of the coracoid of Archaeopteryx would not have permitted the supracoracoideus muscle to function as a wing elevator^''*. Because the asymmetrical remiges of Archaeopteryx prove that the wing had an aerodynamic function'', we now hope to show that neither of the preceding points precludes a capacity for powered flight in Archaeopteryx. There are several generally held misconceptions concerning the pectoral girdle of modern birds. The most prevalent of these is that the carina of the sternum is the principal site of origin of the massive pectoralis muscle, which provides the power stroke of the wing. This is not so. In most birds, m. pectoralis originates to a greater extent from the furcula and the coraco-clavicular membrane (Fig. 1 ). As it passes posteriorly its fibres originate on the sternum only from those areas not pre-empted by the underlying m. supracoracoideus. Typically, these areas consist of a narrow band on the ventral margin of the carina and the most lateral and posterior portions of the sternal plate (Fig. 2). In such birds as the Dendrocolaptidae, in which the carina is reduced to facilitate tree-trunk foraging^, the pectoralis muscle becomes thin and broad, spreading out laterally and dorsally well past the sternum and on to the rib cage. Once anchored to the furcular area, it would seem that m. pectoralis could expand posteriorly and attach to any underlying structure that happened to be present. Apart from feathers, the character of Archaeopteryx most often cited as being bird-like is the well developed furcula. Relative to modern birds of the same size, the furcula of Archaeopteryx is actually hypertrophied. There has been no satisfactory explanation of this structure which has received mostly perfunctory treatment. Ostrom merely asks: "Did it function as a transverse spacer between the shoulder sockets?"^ Why such a structure would be needed in Archaeopteryx and not in any of its suggested ancestors is never dealt with. We consider that the extremely robust furcula of Archaeopteryx is best interpreted as having been the site of origin of a well developed pectoralis muscle. When it is observed that m. pectoralis arises to a large extent from the furcular area, it can then be seen that the main function of the ossified sternum and carina in modern birds is to provide attachment for the supracoracoideus muscle (Fig. 2). Although the belly of m. supracoracoideus is situated ventrally, it serves to raise the wing because its tendon passes above the glenoid facet and over the acrocoracoid process of the coracoid to insert on the dorsal aspect of the humérus (Fig. 2). In modern birds it is the largest of the muscles that effect the recovery stroke of the wing. For this reason, Ostrom^ has emphasised the absence of an acrocoracoid process in Archaeopteryx, suggesting that if m. supracoracoideus had been present it could not have functioned to raise the wing. Ostrom interprets this as evidence for Archaeopteryx having been flightless, the implication being that m. supracoracoideus is essential for flight. That this is not the case has been conclusively proven by Sy*, who cut the supracoracoideus tendons in living examples of crows {Corvus) and pigeons {Columba) and found that the birds were stili capable of normal, sustained flight. It is of considerable interest Furcula Scapula