Friday 17 July 2015

Giving Wings to Fancy?


A new fossil of a dinosaur from China apparently had wings and feathers but would (because of its size and weight) have been incapable of flight (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33510288). There are apparently two possibilities. The first is that the species (like birds such as the penguin and the ostrich) lost the power of flight. The other is that wings in these reptiles were not initially designed for flying but (like the peacock's tail) were part of sexual display. It seems likely that only further fossil evidence solve this conundrum.

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What's In a Critter's Name? 11. Comma butterfly

The Comma butterfly ( Polygonia c-album) gets its name from the punctuation-like mark, on the underside of its wings.