Look at those dinosaurs fly! (1 Viewer)

[Julie K]

New Study Suggests Missing Link that Explains How Dinosaurs Learned to Fly
This is an absolutely fascinating article. Someone has studied how chukars run. Chukars can fly, but do seem to prefer to run uphill. Until now, no one really thought anything of it, but the scientist who studied them has found that the flapping of their wings actually gives them better traction and they can run up slopes of 105 degrees. Instead of flapping to create lift, the flapping motion pushes them forward and downward. This benefit (of escaping predators quickly) may have driven the evolution of wings and actual flight came later.
Be sure to check out the two videos on this page - one of a three day old hatchling running up a small slope and one of an adult literally running up a vertical tree trunk!

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Interesting... I've often believed that birds are dinosaur decendants. This article finally gives an explanation why they learned to fly. Thanks for the link.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Always a fascinating topic. Read about it in this morning's Times.

 

[MickeS]

That seems odd. What a cute little baby bird!

 

[Max Leung]

Cool.

Could this explain why people flap their arms like chickens when running/falling on ice?

 

[Jeff Pryor]

^
Humans are evolving into birds!

 

[BrianW]

I remember a similar study with insects in an effort to determine what good half-a-wing would do for an insect that hadn't yet evolved wings large enough to fly. The results were much the same, with the wing flapping used as a method to increase speed to avoid predators. I don't remember the details, but the researchers believed this to be especially true of insects on the surface of the water avoiding the hungry reptiles and fish below the surface. Their wings would presumably give them great speed across the water's surface. Eventually, one insect had wings big enough to fly, and ever since then, insects have been feeding birds as well as fish.

 

[Max Leung]

Hmm, didn't know this would apply to insects too...makes sense though.

 

[Danny R]

Not so fast folks!
Just when you think the ground-up method of flight gets a lift, the trees-down method comes in strong as well with the discovery of a Fossil of 4-Winged Dinosaur

 

[Jack Briggs]

I was reading about this amazing find in this morning's Los Angeles Times. How exciting!

 

[Julie K]

Does this mean feathers are going to fly between opposing sides on this one?

Seriously though, this is most interesting and I don't think the two theories are necessarily in opposition.

 

[Frederick]

Anyone see that Discovery Channel program about how animals will continue to evolve? I think they took a look about 20-40 million years into the future. Anyway, that 4-winged animal looks like one of the creatures they showed on that program. Very interesting stuff ...




Freddy C.