• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Robot Dinosaur Suggests 124-Million-Year-Old Species Flapped Feathered Wings To Scare Prey

January 25, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

While T. rex and other large ancient predators had the advantage of size and frankly enormous teeth when it came to intimidating their prey, smaller dinosaurs didn’t have quite the same arsenal of claws and fangs to rely on. Instead, a new paper has suggested that to source their prey, these small feathered dinos used their wings to flush other species out of hiding. The team even recreated a robotic dinosaur to test their theory.

Lots of small non-avian dinosaurs possessed feathers, but one special feather type, known as pennaceous, can be seen in only one group dubbed the Pennaraptora. These feathers were present on their proto-wings (primitive wings that are too small for powered flight) and on their tails, often colored with contrasting patterns. While the function of these wings is unknown, the team thinks that displaying their plumage could have been used to help flush prey species out of their hiding places, making them easier to hunt. 

Advertisement

The dinosaurs would have been insectivores and omnivores, driving creatures like insects out to eat. This behavior can still be seen in living bird species, such as the greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) and the northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos). Plumage displays trigger the prey item out of hiding, allowing the animal to then pursue it and attempt to capture and consume it. 



ⓘ IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.

To test the theory, the team developed Robopteryx, a robotic dinosaur with proto-wings. The robot was based on the pennaraptoran dinosaur Caudipteryx, which lived roughly 124 million years ago and was thought to be around the same size as a peacock. The team then evaluated the escape behaviors of grasshoppers as a response to the robot’s wing display, using this particular group of insects as they belong to the order Orthoptera, which also existed 124 million years ago. 

Advertisement

Robopteryx was used in several sequences imitating different so-called flush–pursuit displays. Included in these displays were moments when the proto-wings were spread wide, the tail was raised and then the wings were folded back and the tail lowered.



The results showed that 93 percent of tested grasshoppers fled when the proto-wings were used by the robot, compared to only 47 percent when the wings were not used in the display. There was also a significant association between the wings having white patches and the tail having feathers and the chance that the grasshoppers would flee. 

Overall the team believes this could offer one explanation for how pennaceous feathers on proto-wings and tails were used and why they might have begun to evolve like this in dinosaurs. 

Advertisement

The study is published in Scientific Reports.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Defense Department seeks nuclear propulsion for small spacecraft
  2. Burberry shows ‘animal instinct’ with deconstructed trench for spring
  3. Abu Dhabi’s Etihad seeks to hire up to 1,000 cabin crew
  4. Decades-Old, Infinitely Large Math Problem Gets Surprisingly Neat Solution

Source Link: Robot Dinosaur Suggests 124-Million-Year-Old Species Flapped Feathered Wings To Scare Prey

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Chimps Are Sticking Grass In Their Ears And Rears As They Embrace “Pointless” Fad
  • Hui Te Rangiora: Old Māori Legend Suggests They May Have Discovered Antarctica 1,000 Years Before Europeans
  • “Potential Impact On Saturn”: Astronomers Appeal For Help As Video Appears To Show Object Hitting The Gas Giant
  • What Is Prosopometamorphopsia? The “Exceedingly Rare” Condition That Made A Patient See Faces As Dragons
  • Are We In An Enormous Void? It Could Explain What’s Wrong With Our Model Of The Universe
  • Woylies Boing Back Into Western Australia Thanks To Groundbreaking Wildlife Project
  • North America’s Oldest Pterosaur And Turtle Fossils Found In Arizona’s Petrified Forest
  • Proposed “Dark Dwarfs” Near The Galactic Center Could Reveal The Nature Of Dark Matter
  • Watch: 18-Kilometer-High Ash Cloud Looms Over Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki After “Explosive” Eruption
  • “ShipGoo001”: Mystery Of Entirely New Lifeform Discovered Coating A Great Lakes Ship
  • Rare White Humpback Whale Calf Filmed By Drone Off Australia’s East Coast
  • Who Was Buried At Cave Of Salome: A Female Disciple, Jesus’ Midwife, Or A Princess?
  • “Hidden” Changes To US Health Data Swapping “Gender” For “Sex” Spark Fears For Public Trust
  • Easter Island Was Never As Isolated As We Thought – Study Puts That “Strange Argument” To Bed
  • If Birds Are Dinosaurs, Why Are None As Big As T. Rexes?
  • Psychologists Demonstrate Illusion That Could Be Screwing Up Our Perception Of Time
  • Why Are So Many Enormous Roman Shoes Being Discovered At Hadrian’s Wall?
  • Scientists Think They’ve Pinpointed Structural Differences In Psychopaths’ Brains
  • We’ve Found Our Third-Ever Interstellar Visitor, Orcas Filmed Kissing (With Tongues) In The Wild, And Much More This Week
  • The “Eyes Of Clavius” Will Be Visible On The Moon Today, Thanks To Clair-Obscur Effect
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version