225 million years ago, before the first large dinosaurs conquered Earth, there were small reptiles that soared through the air gliding or skydiving.
These ancestors of the lizard, called kuehnosaurs, used to fly strange extensions of their ribs that formed wide surfaces like wings. According to study author Koen Stein of the University of Bristol, of the two genera discovered so far in Britain, one, the Kuehneosuchus was a glider , while the Kuehneosaurus , with shorter "wings", moved like a paratrooper .
Initially, Stein didn't think these stiff wings were really efficient in midair. But to confirm this, he decided to build life-size models of the reptiles and test their aerodynamics in a wind tunnel . To their surprise, the experiments revealed that Kuehneosuchus was much more stable than expected, as leaping from a five meter high tree, it could have easily crossed a distance of thirty feet before landing. The calculations, published today in the journal Palaeontology , have been made possible thanks to the collaboration of aerospace engineers.
University of Bristol (www.bristol.ac.uk)
