Yet another question on evolution...!

Question

It is thought that birds evolved from reptiles, and that wings evolved from reptiles jumping and flapping their arms to catch insects.

But a functioning wing wouldn't have evolved initially, as it is too complicated, due to muscle distribution. So reptiles would gradually get flaps on their arms which were the start of the evoltuion of the wing.

However, these would have served no purpose and would not help the reptile survive, so until a properly functioning wing evolved, how did the reptiles with the flaps under their arms survive?

(Keeping in mind there were very few of them)

Answer 1

> "these [early wings] would have served no purpose and would not help the reptile survive"

This is not true at all.   A branch of the dinosaurs found survival not from being large and fierce, but being small and agile.   It developed *many* features along these lines that helped it survive by becoming lighter and evading predators, not just catching insects.   The development of feathers was a lightweight insulation for a warm-blooded animal.   A lighter skeleton with hollow bones.  A bigger heart and lungs for stamina and endurance.  And running on hind legs as a faster way of moving.  

Have you ever seen a chicken run?   Its wings are pretty much useless for flying, but by flapping while running, this makes the chicken lighter and much faster runner.   It is able to hop up onto objects much taller than itself, and to flap down from heights without injury.   Imagine an entire branch of chicken-like dinosaurs, running from predators, flapping up to branches, gliding down from higher branches.   Flapping and hopping leads to jumping and gliding, then to soaring, and finally to clumsy but ever improving flight.

So it's not just "flaps under their arms" ... and it's not just the wing.  You have to consider an entire host of features that *together* represented a survival strategy that worked.

Incidentally, it is the insulating feathers, and big heart and lungs that are probably the reason that these are the only descendants of the dinosaurs that survived the mass extinction 65 million years ago.   Ice samples show that this coincided in a sudden worldwide drop in both temperature and atmospheric oxygen, probably caused by a catastrophic meteor strike.   So the the more efficient cardio-vascular system and better insulation is what led this branch of the dinosaurs survive the catastrophe, and then discover a wide-open world without their bigger, more deadly relatives ... and from these small survivors, the birds emerged.

Answer 2

It could have been possible that those few animals did not require wings example like penguin. it could be possible that they were able to adapt to that environment with flaps itself.  

Answer 3

Actually, the hypothesis is birds evolved from tree climbing therapod dinosaurs.

They jumped from tree to tree to get around.  Glided from tree to tree worked better, and flying was even better.

Answer 4

all of this is speculation but probably like flying squirrels or sugar gliders. they were  probably small warm blooded reptiles that used it to evade predators as apposed to using the adaptation to hunt. catching something that has be flying a million years longer that you wont be easy if you only started flying yesterday.