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Renum63 β Microraptor fossilising
#dinosaurs #mesozoic #microraptor #paleoart
Published: 2016-04-15 20:21:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 12426; Favourites: 529; Downloads: 86
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Rest in pieces little Microraptor.
Awesome job
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You're very welcome; great work !
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Thanks! Glad you do!
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You're welcome
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Thank you very muchΒ Β
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Are those feathers on the hindlegs? Looks like a misplaced tail, but the actual tail is obvious..
Nice impression, lovely colors
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Yes they are. It's an odd looking feature especially as the feathers are quite long. Hard to understand how they could have been of any use for flying (or gliding). Thanks.
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Hm yes I was also wondering how those hindleg feathers could have supported the animal in flight. Did they glide or actually fly - or unknown yet?
I can imagine that it may be useful in gliding flight if they spread their limbs, like sugar gliders and flying squirrels do.
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My understanding is that these creatures are believed to have been gliders. In active flight one would think that the hind leg feathers were only disturbing. On the other hand if they could keep their feet up in the way of modern passerines, it wouldn't have been that bad and the leg feathers could have even improved their maneuvering abilities (when spreading the legs) as the tails do in modern birds. I doubt the long dinosaur tail was very practical in that sense.
Of course, feathers didn't originally evolve for flying, but the moment they started to make some use for that purpose, things must have changed quite rapidly. Flying squirrels again developed their patagiums solely for flying (or gliding more correctly). But the way their flying membranes turned out, flying squirrels never became (and never can become) active flyers like bats. Evolution is funny.
Speacing of flying squirrels, we have them living here just around the corner. Modern forestry is giving the a hard time, but they can find a refuge in parks and other small green areas with old trees even in the Helsinki metropolitan area (where we live). They are adorable little creatures. But they are not very easy to see, being nocturnal animals, so most people don't even know they have flying squirrels as neighbors.
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blogs.scientificamerican.com/tβ¦
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