The dinosaur was a lousy flyer, had no future and 160 million years later clearly proves that nature also sometimes fails.
You only have to look outside to see them flying: birds. They come in all shapes and sizes and they rule the skies today. With that you can see them as an evolutionary success story. A story that – it is believed – goes back to the time of the theropod dinosaurs, from which modern birds are descended.
Yi en Ambopteryx
However, anyone who thinks that dinosaurs effortlessly transformed into the predecessors of the birds we know today is wrong. In a new study, scientists show that dinosaurs made multiple attempts to take to the skies prior to the evolution of modern birds and that not every attempt was equally successful.
The researchers draw this conclusion after looking at two dinosaurs that lived in China about 160 million years ago: Yi and Ambopteryx. The two winged theropod dinosaurs were on the small side, weighing about two pounds. But what really made them special is that – unlike most other theropod dinosaurs that like to keep both feet on the ground – they lived in trees.
Bad fliers
Judging by the build of Yi and Ambopteryx – and their wings, of course – researchers assumed that these dinosaurs not only lived in bombs, but could also fly somewhat. Or at least float from tree to tree. But was that really the case? Researcher Thomas Dececchi, associated with Mount Marty University, posed this question together with some colleagues and can be brief about it after thorough research. Both dinosaurs were lousy fliers. And that also surprised Dececchi, he says Scientias.nl. “I thought they would be good glider pilots and that they might also be slapping their wings every now and then. But I didn’t expect them to be as bad as we found out. It reminds me that we can become somewhat blinded by the sophistication of the flight of modern birds and quickly forget that it may have been preceded by a period of experimentation and failure. ”
Laser light and models
To get a better idea of the abilities of Yi and Ambopteryx, the fossil remains of both dinosaurs were first carefully studied. Dececchi and colleagues used a technique in which laser light is used to reveal details in soft tissues. Subsequently, mathematical models were used to translate the physical characteristics into actual flight movements. “They really couldn’t fly,” Dececchi concludes. “They could float. But they weren’t even good at that. ”
Competition
Looking back, you can see the dinosaurs as opportunists who got the short straw. “They lived about 40 million after a massive mass extinction that made dinosaurs the dominant land animals. So the dinosaurs now had the opportunity to spread into different habitats and niches. Some dinosaurs tried to fill the gaps that the pterosaurs (flying reptiles, ed.) Dropped into the sky. ” Among them also Yi and Ambopteryx. ” But the clumsy gliders can’t make it; they died out after a few million years. “As soon as they came under pressure, they lost. They couldn’t win on the ground. They couldn’t win in the air. It was done. ”
Unlike modern birds, Yi an Ambopteryx did not have wings covered with feathers. Instead – like pterosaurs and the later bats – they had wings covered with fly hide. Image: Gabriel Ugueto.
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Dececchi hypothesizes that Yi and Ambopteryx – as bad glider pilots – came under pressure in different ways. “Because they were such bad gliders, they were easy targets for pterosaurs,” he says. “And on the ground, with their short legs and body adapted to climbing trees, they were again very bad runners and therefore easy prey for carnivorous dinosaurs. All of that in itself wouldn’t have been much of a problem if their food – probably insects – were freely available and they only needed to glide for that food (like flying squirrels do) or when danger was imminent (like flying lizards do). But soon the first birds appeared, which could fly much better and were probably also fond of insects. So now Yi and Ambopteryx had to deal with predators they couldn’t outrun or flee and competitors better able to find the same food. I think that combination turned this lineage fatal. If they had had a few million extra years to fine-tune their wing design, who knows … maybe we would have had winged theropods in our backyard next to birds and bats. ”
Failed experiments
But Yi and Ambopteryx was not given that much time, so after Dececchi’s research we have to regard the dinosaurs as failed experiments by Mother Nature. The good news for Yi and Ambopteryx is that they are far from alone. Earlier this year, Dececchi and colleagues encountered dinosaurs that tried to take to the skies shortly after the birds emerged. Some even evolved properties that we also encounter in birds of that time. But it was in vain. “They couldn’t start to dominate, because the birds were already there, so you have another failure here. The more we investigate fossils, the clearer it becomes that nature is constantly experimenting and that these experiments very often do not last long. ”
Dececchi hopes so the research can help to get a more complete picture of the surprisingly complex evolution of birds. In many ways, the path that Yi and Ambopteryx chose is not uncommon among vertebrates. Bats and pterosaurs did it like that, as did all modern gliding mammals, amphibians, and most reptiles. It seems like the easiest approach, but it didn’t work (for Xi and Ambopteryx and also the later birds, ed.). ” Instead, nature’s missteps seem to have led the theropod dinosaurs that actually gave birth to birds at a later stage to take a completely different approach. “And that’s what this research is doing: it gives us a better understanding of the false take-offs and the challenges that birds had to overcome in order to gain effective wings and truly become rulers of the skies. If you are not successful at first, try again and again and learn from your mistakes. ”
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