The team compared the body structure of a number of early birds and found that some toothed species were more adapted for flight. They think natural selection may have put pressure on weaker fliers to lose their teeth in a bid to improve their skills by losing excess weight. "It would be especially advantageous to reduce the weight of the head because [it] is further from the centre of gravity," they write.
That theory is "as good as any other", says Mike Benton at the University of Bristol, UK, though he remains sceptical. "Losing teeth wouldn't make a huge difference to balance in the air."
StoryTeller: Zhonghe Zhou at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing
Source: Early birds may have dropped teeth to get airborne
.jpg)
Posts
2 comments:
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
In a related story, researchers at the same Academy of Scientists decided to do away with common sense in their explanations, as it was thought that the added weight of this requirement was preventing their theory from ascending to the heights of mythology.
Post a Comment