By TJ Small | published
In a move that combines two of Michael Crichton's greatest works, scientists release robotic dinosaurs into the wild for experimental purposes. The move, which looks like it was taken straight from the opening act of a slasher movie, was done as a way to demonstrate dinosaur hunting techniques, confirming ancient theories about fossil patterns. Videos of the massive robotic dinosaur have been shared on YouTube, including one that shows the massive creature frightening an unsuspecting grasshopper with the flapping of its powerful wings.
Fortunately, the robotic dinosaurs in question are large and fairly unwieldy, meaning that humans living near so-called hunting grounds need not fear that their lives will become a mixture of… Jurassic Park And The west In the near future.
Scientists have created a robotic dinosaur experiment to answer why some dinosaurs had wings long before evolution allowed them to fly.
The dinosaurs that scientists recreated with robotic parts are from the Pinaraptora group, which contains prehistoric birds that resemble birds of prey and have claws protruding from their wings. Researchers have long been puzzled by the use of these feathered wings, which still adorn the features of modern birds to this day.
In order to put an end to their concerns regarding the use of Benaraptora's wings, a team of engineers from Seoul National University in South Korea created robotic dinosaurs with specifications as similar to the real thing as they could estimate to mimic the creatures' behavior. In the wild.
This allowed researchers to confirm that the wings were primarily used to fly short distances after jumping from trees or other high areas without providing the ability to fully fly.
This has been a theory that scientists have carried around for ages, due to fossils suggesting that feathered wings were not nearly strong enough to lift certain genera of Benaraptora off the ground. However, robotic dinosaurs have provided further insight into the hunting patterns of Benaraptura species, which researchers now believe would have eaten similarly to modern road animals.
Searching for food
Roadrunners, possibly Benaraptura, hunted via a method called foraging by flapping their wings forcefully enough to scare their prey from hiding places high and low.
That's why the video of robotic dinosaurs scaring off grasshoppers is so important, because it helps illustrate this hunting strategy. Of course, a giant obsidian structure on wheels offers little confirmation of this fact, as any large creature moving in this way would likely inspire a grasshopper to head for the hills.
However, research by the Seoul National University team showed that 93% of grasshoppers responded to initial wing flapping, while only 47% fled when the wings remained still.
Further solidifying this data, the results seem to show that grasshoppers were more likely to escape when the robotic dinosaurs had white spots on their wings or flapping feathers on their tails.
As scientists continue to examine prehistoric records for data on dinosaur bone structures, engineers have continued to push the boundaries of what is possible in our modern technological landscape, allowing for more advances of this kind. By this time next year, we may have our own robotic dinosaur sanctuary, complete with the annual evacuation when the Robo-Rex emerges from its perches and crashes into a crowd of waiting people.
source: nature