Sharks, flying snakes & humanoids

[Blue Scallop]

Why are there no flying snakes or flying scorpions with venoms?

And if some dinosaurs can fly.. why can't something lighter like humanoids also fly? In this age where traffic is at stand still.. don't you wish you can just sprout you wings and fly in the cities?

Any studies what kinds of muscles must we evolved for us to flap our wings and fly?

 

[Evo]

Why are there no flying snakes or flying scorpions with venoms?

And if some dinosaurs can fly.. why can't something lighter like humanoids also fly? In this age where traffic is at stand still.. don't you wish you can just sprout you wings and fly in the cities?

Any studies what kinds of muscles must we evolved for us to flap our wings and fly?

I'll just start off by saying it's not muscles that are required for flying. It's the whole body, the skeleton, the shape. Have you studied evolution at all?

Although mankind has conquered the skies with airplanes, we have yet to match up to our winged animal counterparts who fly on their own. And now, scientists have determined that we never will: it is mathematically impossible for humans to fly like birds.

A bird can fly because its wingspan and the wing muscle strength are in balance with its body size. It has a lightweight skeleton with hollow bones, which puts a smaller load on its wings. A bird also has air sacs connected to its lungs, which makes it even lighter and allows for easy passage of air through its lungs during flight.

continued...

http://www.yalescientific.org/2013/03/qa-why-cant-humans-fly/

 

[berkeman]

I am much more concerned about flying sharks. Just sayin'...

http://www.motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/0909/flying-sharks-demotivational-poster-1252048473.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c9/43/aa/...4f8d2483665--great-white-shark-fun-things.jpg

 

[DaveC426913]

Why are there no flying snakes

Actually, there are.




It's actually generating lift, and is a better glider than flying squirrels:

"The concave wing that the snake creates in flattening itself, flattens its body to up to twice its width from the back of the head to the anal vent, which is close to the end of the snake's tail, causes the cross section of the snake's body to resemble the cross section of a frisbee or flying disc.[10] When a flying disc spins in the air, the designed cross sectional concavity causes increased air pressure under the centre of the disc, causing lift for the disc to fly.[12] The snake continuously moves in lateral undulation to create the same effect of increased air pressure underneath its arched body to glide.[10] Flying snakes are able to glide better than flying squirrels and other gliding animals, despite the lack of limbs, wings, or any other wing-like projections, gliding through the forest and jungle it inhabits with the distance being as great as 100 m.[10][13] Their destination is mostly predicted by ballistics; however, they can exercise some in-flight attitude control by "slithering" in the air.[1]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysopelea

 

[Drakkith]

Why are there no flying snakes or flying scorpions with venoms?

The general reason is that evolution did not confer those traits onto scorpions or snakes. Either because the large number of mutations needed to develop flight never happened or because the initial mutations that would have taken place were not advantageous for snakes and scorpions at the time (likely a combination of both). Note that animals and insects did not evolve flight overnight. It took millions of years of successive body plan alterations to develop all of the modification necessary for flight. If, at any time during this process, those interim traits turned out not to be advantageous, or if a changing environment turned those advantageous traits into a liability, the population with those traits would face severe selection pressure and would either be driven to extinction or to evolve away from those traits.

Any studies what kinds of muscles must we evolved for us to flap our wings and fly?

We'd need to undergo a large number of changes in order to fly. For one, we'd need to evolve wings, with all of the necessary underlying structures, along with a reduced body density to reduce our weight, and changes in our cardiovascular system (and other systems) to support sustained flight. These are not trivial changes. We'd essentially have to become entirely different organisms, well removed from the rest of the primate Order under which we belong.

 

[BillTre]

And if some dinosaurs can fly

Not dinosaurs, reptiles, unless you count the birds, which are actually classified as dinosaurs.

Why are there no flying snakes

There are. Movie here.

why can't something lighter like humanoids also fly?

Humans can fly, (with mechanical aids). And.

For human flight without mechanical aid, several changes in human anatomy would probably be required, such as: lighter body (bones, brain, muscle), perhaps different kinds of muscles, changes in body shape, and perhaps a sacrifice in hand/arm function. This would lead to trade offs with other adaptive functions.

In this age where traffic is at stand still.. don't you wish you can just sprout you wings and fly in the cities?

I would rather have a Blade Runner car!

 

[DaveC426913]

And now the OP is gone...

 

[Evo]

And now the OP is gone...

You missed a now deleted very wrong thread he posted, it wasn't due to this thread.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Snakes evolved from lizards during the Cretaceous: from Wikipedia:

There is fossil evidence to suggest that snakes may have evolved from burrowing lizards, such as the varanids (or a similar group) during the Cretaceous Period. ... Subterranean species evolved bodies streamlined for burrowing, and eventually lost their limbs.

Snakes are in a completely different branch of the evolutionary tree from Theropods (Dinosaurs that walked on two legs). Theropods gave rise to birds.

Mammals evolved flight in bats, and there are species of flying squirrels that are in the midst of evolving full flight.

Therefore, flight has arisen multiple times in the animal kingdom, ignoring invertebrates like insects, and in unrelated species and at varying times in the past.

So it makes very little sense to ask why something did not happen once you have a grip on how things evolved.

FWIW - flight arose other times during the Dinosaur eras - Pterosaurs are reptiles unrelated to dinosaurs and are the first known flying vertebrates.

 

[berkeman]

Actually, there are.

That is just wrong, Dave. I'm going to have a hard time sleeping tonight. You do understand that my Fail Shark Memes were humor, right?

 

[DaveC426913]

 

[DaveC426913]

 

[jim mcnamara]

Moved and renamed since it has become more about flying sharks, legos, and general non-science.

 

[Evo]

Wait, my first post was about the science.

Oh well, it has become a fun thread.

Years ago when I was walking my two girls and their friend though the arboretum, a snake flew out of a tree and almost struck us, it was about 3 feet long. We ran the remaining mile down the trail to get out of the woods. Snakes in the trees!

 

[BillTre]

There are of course a variety of flying fish also:
hatchet fish for your aquarium
salt water flying fish: when working on a NOAA ship off Florida, I have seen these flying (skimming the water) for at least 100 yards.

Jumping Manta Rays ares also cool!

Oh well, it has become a fun thread.

Agreed!

 

[Evo]

There are of course a variety of flying fish also:
hatchet fish for your aquarium
salt water flying fish: when working on a NOAA ship off Florida, I have seen these flying (skimming the water) for at least 100 yards.

Jumping Manta Rays ares also cool!
Agreed!

Oh wow, I had never seen manta rays jump!

 

[BillTre]

flying scorpions with venoms?

No a scorpion, but small spiders can "fly" on a piece of spider silk.
There are also some they can directionally glide without using their silk.
And they are venomous!

 

[diogenesNY]

Nineteenth century, first person non-fictional sailor's narratives are full of anecdotes that involve said sailors spinning all manor of outrageous yarns that are accepted unquestioningly by credulous audiences, only to be vociferously objected to when flying fish are described.

--diogenesNY

 

[DaveC426913]

Nineteenth century, first person non-fictional sailor's narratives are full of anecdotes that involve said sailors spinning all manor of outrageous yarns that are accepted unquestioningly by credulous audiences, only to be vociferously objected to when flying fish are described.

And I accept diogenesNY's assertion unquestioningly.
Or so historians of the future will say.

 

[Ibix]

Nineteenth century, first person non-fictional sailor's narratives are full of anecdotes that involve said sailors spinning all manor of outrageous yarns that are accepted unquestioningly by credulous audiences, only to be vociferously objected to when flying fish are described.

Cassell's 20th Century English Dictionary defines "sea serpent" as a sea monster of serpent-like form often seen and described by imaginative sailors, credulous landsmen and common liars.