The finding of two tiny dinosaurs with bat-like wings was a paleontologist's fantasy a few years ago. They are trying to pin down how flight originated in birds, and looking at this early development of bat-like wings in dinosaurs might give us a hint.
But a team of experts has now found out that it doesn't always imply you're fantastic at flying just because you have wings. They published their findings in iScience.
The two groups of theropod dinosaurs, Yi qi and Ambopteryx longibrachium, existed around 160 million years ago. Each has oddly elongated digits and a skin layer extending across them, close to a bat's wing.
And the team designed how dinosaurs might have soared, correcting for factors like weight, wingspan, and positioning of muscles (all factors we can't know from the fossils alone).
Overwhelming Discoveries
They can't do a powered flight," says lead author, Mount Marty University biologist Thomas Dececchi.
So we're looking at flying capabilities considerably worse than a chicken, even worse than the flightless New Zealand parrot, the kakapo, according to Dececchi and his team's model, which is still primarily restricted to gliding from trees but can at least flap to regulate descent.
But while it's a little sad for the Yi and Ambopteryx, it's positive news for us-the results provide even more proof that dinosaurs have produced (or at least attempted to) flight many times.
As the team points out, maybe it shouldn't be a surprise given all the forms of flies, gliders, flying squirrels, and other gliding or flying animals.
We suggest that for non-avialan theropods, this clade was an isolated invasion of the aerial domain. If correct, during the Mesozoic, this will indicate at least two, but more possibly three or more flight attempts (both propelled and gliding) by tiny pennaraptoran theropods, "the team writes in their paper."
"This may perhaps be unsurprising considering the vast number of individual gliding flight occurrences within crown mammals, but it does provide a more complex view of the aerial environment."
Check out more news and information about dinosaurs on Science Times.
