How did this four-wingedMicroraptorfly?

During the recent Cretaceous , this gorgeous four - winged Microraptor flit among the dinosaurs in a area we call China today . Now , paleontologist Darren Naish and his colleagues have done a serial of screwball experiment to figure out how these seemingly - impossible bird ancestors flew .

Illustration byEmily Willoughby

With characteristic juiceless wit , Naish describes part of the experiment on his blogTetrapod fauna :

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Colin made an precise , poseable scale model of a Microraptor , kitted out with real feather ( from ducks and pigeon ) attached in anatomically right locating and orientations . Those who have been following the development of theme on the lifetime appearance of non - avian maniraptorans will be interested to observe that our framework ’s headland , cervix and physical structure has the streamlined look more typical of modern birds than of schematic reconstruction of Mesozoic dinosaur : an unavoidable consequence of our considering the full extent of all the square present in these animal . . .

The example was placed in the University of Southampton wind tunnel and subjected to various feigning . In view of the disceptation about hindlimb military strength , we tested the model ’s carrying into action with sprawling limbs , with the branch projecting straight downwards , and with the hindlimbs completely polish off . Aerodynamic public presentation was best when the limbs were in the straight - down stance ( Dyke et al . 2013 ) – a comforting issue given that this is the configuration we affect as most probable . The tail operated as a lift - mother social organization , meaning that Microraptor can accurately be described as a five - winged flier , not just a four - winged one .

Notably , Microraptor was never an efficient bill : it suffered from extensive drag in all simulation and was aerodynamically precarious , perform best when moving chop-chop .

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