Robert T. Bakker Quotes

The respiratory mechanisms of birds are definitely adapted to the function of flight, as evidenced by the fact that birds which do not fly (Apteryx, Penguins) show these adaptations in a greatly reduced form.

Feathers predate birds.

Flight without feathers is not easy.

Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?

If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.

Eagles come in all shapes and sizes, but you will recognize them chiefly by their attitudes.

I've always been fascinated by everything with wings.

Only flies have true halteres. In fact, the scientific term for flies, 'diptera,' means 'two wings.' Most insects, including bees, have two pairs of wings for a total of four. In flies, the hindwing pairs have been transformed through evolution into the halteres.

I would love to be more specific, but really, any type of bird is the funniest animal. They have to move awkwardly when walking. They have beady eyes; they are very suspicious. They can't do anything right. They have no hands, which is inherently funny.

Fly flight is just a great phenomenon to study. It has everything - from the most sophisticated sensory biology; really, really interesting physics; really interesting muscle physiology; really interesting neural computations.

Keratin can be very colorful, as we see in birds. We'd expect dinosaurs to be very colorful because they basically invented the characteristics we see in birds.

I think it is the fact that birds are two-legged, like us, which gives them something of our balance and gesture and makes them nearer to us.

These airplanes we have today are no more than a perfection of a child's toy made of paper.

The pigeon here is a beautiful bird, of a delicate bronze colour, tinged with pink about the neck, and the wings marked with green and purple.

I am a Hawk!

The construction of an airplane is simple compared with the evolutionary achievement of a bird. If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.

I'm like the only Kiwi that can fly, I'm the one with the biggest wing.

It's hard to imagine you've got these massive wings in your back. You have to think about how it's going to affect your posture, affect the way you move, just, like, the sheer weight of them.

Wings are a constraint that makes it possible to fly.

Feathers filled the small room. Our laughter kept the feathers in the air. I thought about birds. Could they fly is there wasn't someone, somewhere, laughing?

Dinosaurs grew feathers for heat regulation, but the ones that started flying started becoming birds.

Flying without feathers is not easy: my wings have no feathers.

As you know, birds do not have sexual organs because they would interfere with flight.

The bird that flutters least is longest on the wing.