The results of a research have challenged the information scientists have obtained so far about dinosaurs. In this unique discovery, dinosaurs have designed a dinosaur in which they have found out about the use of feathers in early dinosaurs by combining the characteristics of today’s locusts. Research has revealed that an old dinosaur used to surprise its prey by using its wings. This discovery is giving completely new information about the evolution of winged dinosaurs.
This discovery is revealing the dinosaurs of that era when they had not even learned to fly. In this research, dinosaurs created a robot dinosaur which was named Robopteryx. Researchers designed the robot dinosaur based on the information received about the dinosaur named Caudipteryx. Through this, scientists found out how modern locusts lived with dinosaurs.
They found that Robopteryx, which had its own wings and tail, would completely scare away the locusts. Based on this, scientists came to the conclusion that similar methods might have been used by ancient small dinosaurs millions of years ago. They may have forced many insects to come out in the same manner as locusts. The team suggested that for this, these dinosaurs may have used protowings, i.e. early winged structures, with which they would have scared the insects to come out.
Flying came to dinosaurs much later than wings. (Symbolic photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Scientists say that initially dinosaurs must have used wings not for flying but for hunting. Till now, small wings for flying have been found only in dinosaurs of the Paenoptera group. But these feathers did not help dinosaurs to fly. Due to which scientists were not able to know how they used these wings.
The researchers designed Robopteryx based on Caudipteryx, a bipedal predator that lived 12.4 million years ago and had behavior and reactions similar to locusts. Caudipteryx were omnivorous, living primarily on a diet of insects. This study has worked to give a new direction to the story of the evolution of winged dinosaurs.
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FIRST PUBLISHED: January 26, 2024, 18:47 IST
