Aves

Article By:

Bock, Walter J. Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York.

Last reviewed:August 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.065700

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• Aves, published June 2014:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

The class of animals consisting of the birds. Birds (Fig. 1) are vertebrate animals comprising the class Aves. (In some classification schemes, the term Neornithes may also be used when referring to modern birds.) Primarily adapted for flying, the members of the Aves are characterized by being feathered, warm-blooded (homeothermic), and bipedal (two-legged), with the forelimb modified into a wing that (together with the tail feathers attached to the short tail) forms the flight mechanism, and by having a very high metabolic rate. Such a characterization, however, as with any group of vertebrates, holds for the living forms and most fossil members of the class, but is blurred by the early fossil record, which contains species with characteristics closer to those of the reptilian ancestors of birds. The feathers of birds are lightweight modifications of the outer skin possessing remarkable aerodynamic qualities. They serve not only as surfaces to generate lift and thrust, and as a streamlined outer surface of the body, but also as insulation to maintain high body temperatures. In addition, birds have lightweight, hollow bones; a well-developed air-sac system and flow-through lungs; a wishbone or furcula (fused clavicles); and a hand reduced to three digits (comparable to digits 2, 3, and 4 of the human hand). Birds have most likely evolved from an ancestor within the large group of ancient diapsid reptiles known as archosaurs (including alligators, snakes and lizards, and dinosaurs, among others). However, debate still centers on whether birds are derived from a basal archosaurian stock or arose later directly from the later and more derived theropod dinosaurs (carnivores such as Allosaurus and Velociraptor). The scientific study of birds is known as ornithology. See also: Adaptation (biology); Animal flight; Archosauria; Avian evolution; Diapsida; Dinosauria; Evolution; Evolution of theropod dinosaurs; Feather; Neornithes; Reptilia; Vertebrata

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