Flying and gliding animals

A number of animals have evolved aerial locomotion, either by powered flight or by gliding. Flying and gliding animals have evolved separately many times, without any single ancestor. Flight has evolved at least four times, in the insects, pterosaurs, birds, and bats. Gliding has evolved on many more occasions. Usually the development is to aid canopy animals in getting from tree to tree, although there are other possibilities. Gliding, in particular, has evolved among rainforest animals, especially in the rainforests in Asia (most especially Borneo) where the trees are tall and widely spaced.

Contents

Types of aerial locomotion

These forms of aerial locomotion are not mutually exclusive and indeed many animals will employ two or more of the methods. Two other common forms of aerial locomotion for humans that are not employed in the rest of the animal kingdom are heli-propulsion and lighter-than-air flight.

Ecology of aerial locomotion

Although only four groups of animals have evolved flight, all of the three extant groups are very successful, suggesting that flight is a very successful strategy once evolved. Bats, after rodents, have the most species of any mammalian order, about 20% of all mammalian species. Birds have the most species of any class of terrestrial vertebrates. Finally insects have more species than all other animal groups combined.

Flying animals may have evolved from gliding animals. However, gliding is not necessarily just an evolutionary route to flying and has some advantages of its own. Gliding is a very energy-efficient way of travelling from tree to tree. An argument made is that many gliding animals eat low energy foods such as leaves and are restricted to gliding because of this, whereas flying animals eat more high energy foods such as fruits, nectar, and insects.[1] In contrast to flight, gliding has evolved independently many times (more than a dozen times among extant vertebrates), however these groups have not radiated nearly as much as have groups of flying animals.

One point of interest is the distribution of gliding animals. Many gliding animals are found in Southeast Asia, some in Africa, although there are no gliding vertebrates in South America. However, many more animals in South America have prehensile tails than in Africa and Southeast Asia. It has been argued that gliding animals dominate in Southeast Asia as the forests are less dense than in South America. In dense forest there is not room to glide, but a prehensile tail is very useful for moving from tree to tree. Also South American rainforests tend to have more lianas as there are fewer large animals to eat them compared to Africa and Asia; these lianas would aid climbers but obstruct gliders.[1] Curiously, Australia contains many mammals with prehensile tails and also many mammals which can glide; in fact, all Australian mammalian gliders have tails that are prehensile to an extent.

Only a few animals are known to have specialised in soaring: the larger of the extinct pterosaurs, and some large birds. Powered flight is very energetically expensive for large animals, but for soaring their size is an advantage, as it allows them a low wing loading, that is a large wing areas relative to their weight, which maximizes lift.[2] Soaring is very energetically efficient.

Biomechanics of aerial locomotion

The forms of aerial locomotion for which the biomechanics are most studied are bird flight and insect flight. The UCMP exhibit on vertebrate flight contains a broad introduction to the biomechanics of flying and gliding vertebrates.[2] .

Limits and extremes

Flying/soaring

Gliding/parachuting

Animals which parachute, glide, or fly (living)

Invertebrates

Arthropods

Molluscs

Vertebrates

Fish

Amphibians

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

Animals which parachute, glide, or fly (extinct)

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

See also

References

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  2. ^ a b "Vertebrate Flight". http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/flight/enter.html. Retrieved 2006-04-15. 
  3. ^ Fillipone
  4. ^ Yanoviak SP, Kaspari M, Dudley R. (2009). Gliding hexapods and the origins of insect aerial behaviour. Biol Lett. 5(4):510-2. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0029 PMID 19324632
  5. ^ Yanoviak, S. P., R. Dudley and M. Kaspari. 2005. Directed aerial descent in canopy ants. Nature 433: 624-626.
  6. ^ "Scientist Discovers Rainforest Ants That Glide". Newswise. http://www.mongabay.com/external/2005/02_09-newswise.html. Retrieved 2006-04-15. 
  7. ^ Packard, A. 1972. Cephalopods and fish: the limits of convergence. Biol. Rev. 47: 241-307
  8. ^ Silvia Maciá, Michael P. Robinson, Paul Craze, Robert Dalton, and James D. Thomas. New observations on airborne jet propulsion (flight) in squid, with a review of previous reports. J. Mollus. Stud. 2004 70: 297-299
  9. ^ a b Piper, Ross (2007), Extraordinary Animals: An Encyclopedia of Curious and Unusual Animals, Greenwood Press.
  10. ^ a b "Vertebrate Flight: gliding and parachuting". http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/flight/gliding.html. Retrieved 2006-04-15. 
  11. ^ Marshall, N.B. (1965) The Life of Fishes. London: Weidenfield and Nicolson. 402 pp.
  12. ^ Berra, Tim M. (2001). Freshwater Fish Distribution. San Diego: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-093156-7
  13. ^ Tiny lizard falls like a feather
  14. ^ Gliding Possums — Environment, New South Wales Government
  15. ^ Cronin, Leonard — "Key Guide to Australian Mammals", published by Reed Books Pty. Ltd., Sydney, 1991 ISBN 0 7301 03552
  16. ^ van der Beld, John — "Nature of Australia — A portrait of the island continent", co-published by William Collins Pty. Ltd. and ABC Enterprises for the Australian Boadcasting Corporation, Sydney, 1988 (revised edition 1992), ISBN 0-7333-0241-6
  17. ^ Russell, Rupert — "Spotlight on Possums", published by University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, Queensland, 1980, ISBN 0 7022 14787
  18. ^ Troughton, Ellis — "Furred Animals of Australia", published by Angus and Robertson (Publishers) Pty. Ltd, Sydney, in 1941 (revised edition 1973), ISBN 0-207-12256-3
  19. ^ Morcombe, Michael & Irene — "Mammals of Australia", published by Australian Universities Press Pty. Ltd, Sydney, 1974, ISBN 0 7249 00179
  20. ^ Ride, W. D. L. — "A Guide to the Native Mammals of Australia", published by Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1970, ISBN 19 550252 3
  21. ^ Serventy, Vincent — "Wildlife of Australia", published by Thomas Nelson (Australia) Ltd., Melbourne, 1968 (revised edition 1977), ISBN 0-17-005168-4
  22. ^ Serventy, Vincent (editor) — "Australia's Wildlife Heritage", published by Paul Hamlyn Pty. Ltd., Sydney, 1975
  23. ^ Myers, Phil. "Family Pseudocheiridae". http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Pseudocheiridae.html. Retrieved 2006-04-15. 
  24. ^ a b Darren Naish: Tetrapod Zoology: Literally, flying lemurs (and not dermopterans)
  25. ^ Ancient Gliding Reptile Discovered | LiveScience
  26. ^ Sharov, Alexei A.. "Wings on Hind Legs". http://www.gypsymoth.ento.vt.edu/~sharov/reptiles/reptiles.html. Retrieved 2006-04-15. 
  27. ^ Stauth, David (2000). "Ancient feathered animal challenges dinosaur-bird link". http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2000/Jun00/birds.htm. Retrieved 2006-04-15. 
  28. ^ "Controversial Fossil Claimed to Sink Dinosaur-Bird Link". Archived from the original on 2006-06-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20060630141141/http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Galaxy/8152/longisquama.html. Retrieved 2006-04-15. 

External links