Scientists discover how flew the first birds
Scientists at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, have revealed new clues about the evolution of bird flight, through a series of experiments based on dinosaur fossils â€" in particular of microraptor.The first dinosaur described as having feathers on the arms, legs and tail lived about 140 million years ago and had five wings. But the microraptor assumes that the evolution of bird flight went through a phase of four wings â€" which represents an important step in the evolution of the beating of wings and soar.Scientists conducted a series of tests and flight simulations in a tunnel with winds of 72 km per hour, using a life-size representation of the dinosaur (see below). The results were astounding â€" show that the microraptor was more stable to glide when generated high elevations with the wings.The results show that the debate on the position and orientation of the dinosaur legs and wind shape is irrelevant, since these variables had very little impact on your flight.Gareth Dyke, co-author of the study and professor of vertebrate paleontology at the University, stressed that the study showed that microraptor "did not require a sophisticated and modern morphology to perform effective slips".According to Dyke, this conclusion is consistent with the fossil record and with the hypothesis that the symmetric flight evolved first in dinosaurs for aerodynamic functions, being then adapted to form efficient aerodynamic surfaces.The study was published this month in the latest issue of the journal Nature Communications.
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