Biplane or dragonfly? Wind tunnel tests may tell the tale.
Microraptor, found in fossil form in
China, was described by Xing Xu of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences in 2003 as having aerodynamic feathers on both its arms and
legs. Xu suggested at the time that it glided,
extending its legs backward so its wings were arranged one behind the other,
like a dragonfly.
But Chatterjee noted that the feathers on the
legs would not face forward, and argued that having one set of wings directly
behind another would be aerodynamically inefficient.
Instead, Chatterjee suggested, the legs of the
two-pound creature could have been held below the body in flight, creating two
staggered wing sections, the upper one slightly ahead of the lower one.
Is there anything dinosaurs couldn't do? Well, you know, except overcome extinction?

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