Watch a robot dinosaur hunt insects —and possibly reveal the purpose of early wings

Many species of dinosaur evolved wings long before they used them to fly. Scientists have speculated that these early structures may have helped the animals do everything from attract mates to protect hatchlings . But a robot dinosaur developed by researchers in South Korea suggests a far different purpose. “Robopteryx” is a peacock-size machine with paper wings modeled after Caudipteryx , a winged, flightless dino that lived 124 million years ago. Researchers hypothesize that Caudipteryx ’s wings, too weak to take it skyward, were used to help it hunt. Its feathers were black, with high-contrasting white stripes—similar to modern-day birds like the painted whitestart. The whitestart uses a strategy called “flush-pursuit”: It sneaks up on a group of bugs and flashes its plumage, startling insects into the open, where the bird can gobble them up more easily. Robopteryx does the same thing (save for the gobbling), as seen in the video above. The scientists brought the robot to public paths frequented by grasshoppers. When the robot opened its protowings with feathers attached, 93% of grasshoppers tested fled away from it , the team reports today in Scientific Reports . When the feathered wings were absent, only 47% of the insects leapt away. Adding high-contrast patches of white to the wings and a feathered tail to the mix helped the robot flush out the bugs even more. In the lab, the grasshoppe...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research