Jingmai O'Connor

OK, like it's a little bit of a story and I'll try to tell it quickly. In like 1915, this researcher named William Beebe was just like kind of pontificating about the evolution of flight in birds. And he hypothesized that in the evolution of avian flight, that it would have gone through a four-winged gliding stage.

And he did this little drawing of what he thought this animal would look like, just like a made-up animal, right? Just from his noggin. Yeah, just, you know, just hypothesizing what might have happened. Yes. And then this dinosaur, Microraptor, was found in 2003. Okay. It has wings on its arms and on its legs. asymmetrical feathers, it was flying. And people got really excited about this.

And he did this little drawing of what he thought this animal would look like, just like a made-up animal, right? Just from his noggin. Yeah, just, you know, just hypothesizing what might have happened. Yes. And then this dinosaur, Microraptor, was found in 2003. Okay. It has wings on its arms and on its legs. asymmetrical feathers, it was flying. And people got really excited about this.

And he did this little drawing of what he thought this animal would look like, just like a made-up animal, right? Just from his noggin. Yeah, just, you know, just hypothesizing what might have happened. Yes. And then this dinosaur, Microraptor, was found in 2003. Okay. It has wings on its arms and on its legs. asymmetrical feathers, it was flying. And people got really excited about this.

People thought Microraptor was proving that he was right about the evolution of flight. So we hypothesized that one origin event of flight in dinosaurs produced both Microraptor and birds, right? Yeah. Now let's enter this dinosaur, Ichi. Ichi, basically a little, like, flying squirrel dinosaur, right? So it's also a flying dinosaur, but it flies not with wings made out of feathers.

People thought Microraptor was proving that he was right about the evolution of flight. So we hypothesized that one origin event of flight in dinosaurs produced both Microraptor and birds, right? Yeah. Now let's enter this dinosaur, Ichi. Ichi, basically a little, like, flying squirrel dinosaur, right? So it's also a flying dinosaur, but it flies not with wings made out of feathers.

People thought Microraptor was proving that he was right about the evolution of flight. So we hypothesized that one origin event of flight in dinosaurs produced both Microraptor and birds, right? Yeah. Now let's enter this dinosaur, Ichi. Ichi, basically a little, like, flying squirrel dinosaur, right? So it's also a flying dinosaur, but it flies not with wings made out of feathers.

It flies with wings made out of flaps of skin, like a flying squirrel. So now you have drastically different forms of flight in dinosaurs, which poses the question that perhaps flight evolved multiple times in dinosaurs. This is a big debate right now. Did flight evolve once in the common ancestor of all flying dinosaurs? Or did flight evolve independently multiple times? Amazing. I love it.

It flies with wings made out of flaps of skin, like a flying squirrel. So now you have drastically different forms of flight in dinosaurs, which poses the question that perhaps flight evolved multiple times in dinosaurs. This is a big debate right now. Did flight evolve once in the common ancestor of all flying dinosaurs? Or did flight evolve independently multiple times? Amazing. I love it.

It flies with wings made out of flaps of skin, like a flying squirrel. So now you have drastically different forms of flight in dinosaurs, which poses the question that perhaps flight evolved multiple times in dinosaurs. This is a big debate right now. Did flight evolve once in the common ancestor of all flying dinosaurs? Or did flight evolve independently multiple times? Amazing. I love it.

It's like really exciting to think about the fact that there are all these different flying dinosaurs around during this certain period of time. Like, four-winged flying dinosaurs, little flying squirrel dinosaurs. But the other cool thing is that we only know what the wings of these dinosaurs look like because they preserve soft tissues.

It's like really exciting to think about the fact that there are all these different flying dinosaurs around during this certain period of time. Like, four-winged flying dinosaurs, little flying squirrel dinosaurs. But the other cool thing is that we only know what the wings of these dinosaurs look like because they preserve soft tissues.

It's like really exciting to think about the fact that there are all these different flying dinosaurs around during this certain period of time. Like, four-winged flying dinosaurs, little flying squirrel dinosaurs. But the other cool thing is that we only know what the wings of these dinosaurs look like because they preserve soft tissues.

And if we didn't have those fossilized soft tissues, I just can't imagine where we'd be right now, just lost in the dark, never able to tease out what these squished fossils are telling us.

And if we didn't have those fossilized soft tissues, I just can't imagine where we'd be right now, just lost in the dark, never able to tease out what these squished fossils are telling us.

And if we didn't have those fossilized soft tissues, I just can't imagine where we'd be right now, just lost in the dark, never able to tease out what these squished fossils are telling us.