Researchers put fake wings on a running ostrich to learn about dinosaurs

CNN — Ever since a fossil of the bird-like dinosaur Archaeopteryx was discovered in 1861, scientists have debated the beginning of flight in birds. The study, published Thursday in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, suggests that winged two-legged dinosaurs may have learned to flap their wings as a side effect of running. The researchers looked atCaudipteryx, a primitive dinosaur that didn’t fly but had feathered “proto-wings” that were essentially like half-wings, weighed only about 11 pounds and could run up to 18 miles per hour. courtesy Yaser Talori/Tsinghua University They also placed artificial wings on a young ostrich, a good modern stand-in for Caudipteryx, and saw the wings flap as it ran around. “Our work shows that the motion of flapping feathered wings was developed passively and naturally as the dinosaur ran on the ground,” said Jing-Shan Zhao, study author and associate professor of mechanical engineering at Tsinghua University in China, in a statement.