Bret Weinstein

So they climb a tree, they've got potential energy and then they glide to the next tree.

They'll go from the end of a branch and they will glide much farther than you would think is possible.

It's really like it challenges you.

Am I really seeing what I'm seeing?

It's hard to believe they can do it.

And then they land on the trunk of the tree.

That's why they're so silent.

They land on the trunk so it doesn't make a big noise as they hit some branch and the leaves rustle and all that.

But anyway, if you've seen these creatures do it,

then you can imagine a pretty clear story, right?

Imagine a squirrel that doesn't glide, a regular garden variety squirrel.

Well, that squirrel certainly faces gaps between trees that push it to its limit, and then there's gaps that are just a little beyond its limit.

And you could imagine lots of scenarios in which a predator is chasing a squirrel, and it's got it out onto the end of a branch, and the squirrel has to leap.

And so it's got to be pretty durable in case it can't make it to the next tree.

They are.

But any squirrel that had just a little advantage in getting to that next tree would outcompete ones that got consumed or died because they hit the ground too hard or fell in front of a predator that took advantage of it or something like that.

So there is an advantage that comes from even a tiny little increase in the distance you can jump.

So that gets you pretty clearly from no ability to glide at all, ability to jump as is, to the ability to glide a little, to the ability to glide a lot, to the ability to glide the way modern flying squirrels do, which is like so impressive, right?

But it's still not flapping flight.

It's not powered.