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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Robo-dino helps to pinpoint the origins of dinosaur flight

The spontaneous flaps of a running dinosaur’s ‘wings’ might have paved the way for true powered flapping.
Caudipteryx robot for testing passive flapping flight

A robotic model of a flightless dinosaur picks up speed, inducing its ‘wings’ to flap. Credit: Y. S. Talori et al.

Dinosaurs whose primitive wings flapped as the animals ran could have helped to pioneer true avian flight.

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Nature 569, 162 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01399-w

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