Robotic Dinosaur To Explain The Origins Of 124 Million Years Old Caudipteryx

A robotic dinosaur is aiding scientists in exploring our prehistoric history to understand the reasons behind certain dinosaurs developing feathered wings before gaining the ability to fly. One expert is doubtful about the robot’s ability to provide significant insights into ancient predators, citing a lack of evidence regarding the dinosaur’s consumption of the tested prey. Scientists constructed a metallic robot named Robopteryx, resembling the Caudipteryx dinosaur with small feathered wings, which existed around 125 million to 122 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous period. In an experiment outlined in a study published on January 25 in Scientific Reports, researchers deployed the flapping Robopteryx to assess whether early-winged, flightless dinosaurs evolved wings to flush out prey, using grasshoppers as subjects.

Study author Sang-im Lee, an integrative animal ecologist at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, suggests that utilising plumage to flush out prey may enhance the frequency of chases, increasing the significance of proto-wings and tails in manoeuvring for effective pursuit. Lee adds that this could potentially result in the evolution of larger and stiffer feathers, enabling more successful pursuits and more prominent visual flush displays.

Various contemporary birds, including the greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus), employ the flush-pursuit strategy. In the experiment, researchers observed that when a wingless version of Robopteryx approached grasshoppers, fewer than half of the insects reacted. In a separate trial, where wing-like structures made of black paper were added to Robopteryx, 93% of the grasshoppers fled. This suggests that proto-wings might have been advantageous for dinosaurs in uncovering prey, akin to the strategy seen in certain present-day birds.

Jingmai O’Connor, an associate curator of fossils at the Field Museum in Chicago, appreciates the quantitative testing of hypotheses but highlights a crucial point. She notes in an interview that there’s no actual evidence that non-volant (flightless) feathered dinosaurs with protowings, like Caudipteryx and Anchiornis, were insectivorous. O’Connor, who led a 2019 analysis on the evolution of the avian digestive system, points out that Caudipteryx appears to have mainly consumed plants, and Anchiornis, another flightless dinosaur with early wings, had a diet primarily consisting of lizards and fish.