Researchers at the University of Southampton in the UK have one of the coolest jobs in the world. They get to build anatomically correct models of dinosaurs and stick them in a wind tunnel. In this particular instance, they build a model of the five-winged Microraptor. With three more wings than modern birds and believed to be one of the earliest flying dinosaurs, researchers hope to figure out how the Microraptor took to the air.
"Significant to the evolution of flight, we show that Microraptor did not require a sophisticated, 'modern' wing morphology to undertake effective glides, as the high-lift coefficient regime is less dependent upon detail of wing morphology," says Gareth Dyke, a vertebrate paleontology expert at the University of Southampton. The Microraptor, and its five wings, existed in the Cretaceous age, which was 120 to 125 million years ago.
The results of the study were published in the Nature Communications journal. The research also appears to solidify the theory that the Microraptor and other flying dinosaurs would eventually give way to modern birds. The research also helps to fully understand the evolution of flight and how creatures adapted to changing environments.
Check out the video below to see how the Microraptor flies.
via Technology articles at Technorati http://feeds09.technorati.com/~r/tr-technology/~3/n6Y3p8Qp2T0/