Ancient Reptile Had Wings Like a Fighter Jet

anthemaniac writes "A reptile that lived 225 million years ago had triangular-shaped wings like the delta-wings of some jets. At least that's what a new computer model suggests. Researcher have generated several possible shapes for the wings of Sharovipteryx mirabili before, so this is just the latest guess (based on one fossil). Last fall NatGeo reported that the first biplane configuration was on a dinosaur. Maybe airplane designers should delve into the fossil record a little more."

Comments

that's just as good of a guess

[MrFebtober]

Ever considered the possibility that looking cool would be an evolutinary advantage?

Sexual display often drives evolution. The brighter the feathers, the bigger the tusks, the stinkier the stink gland, it can all lead to natural selection. If that's what you meant by "cool," then you may have something there. In this case, it could be that the bigger the rear-leg skin flaps, the more attractive to the female. Lots of birds have huge feathers that are only for display. In some cases they make flight impossible, but display takes priority. Any reason why that couldn't be what's going on here?

crap, I just contradicted my other post.

Re:that's just as good of a guess

[ElephanTS]

No, evolution does not work that fast. What you're seeing is an image-obssessed society spending and working more on their appearance. I tend to share your opinion - people today are better looking - but it's mainly presentation. But also good lookingness (to get a bit Blue Steel here) is closely tied to evolutionary fitness (healthy=attractive) so perhaps people are generally healthier. Evolution would only have an effect if the least good-looking were not able to breed because of it. Although this may be the case for a small number of men (insert slashdot joke here) I don't think it's going to be evolutionarily significant.

On a similar topic, have you ever noticed people from 50 years ago looked different to people now. I used to think that was due to presentation (ie, fashion, hairstyles, grooming etc) but now I think it's down to dietary differences and developmental factors. People in the UK, increasingly look younger than they used to too due, I suspect, to better living and working conditions.