About: Scaly Glider   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

Bright flashes of color appear in the heights, up among the branches, creepers and trunks of the Amazon Rainforest canopy. To and fro, the colors dart, like large butterflies, swooping and wheeling in the breezes, then flopping onto a branch and blending instantly with the mottled bark in the dappled sunshine. These are not butterflies, however, but some of the smallest non-avian dinosaurs that have ever existed. Descended from the same coelurosaur stock as the arbrosaurs, the scaly gliders adapted to a gliding life with the evolution of the flowering plants and hence, the butterflies. The latter represent the gliders' principal food. A controlled dive and glide through the air can bring a scaly glider close to a butterfly at rest on a flower, and, with a quick snatch of pointed jaws, the

AttributesValues
rdfs:label
  • Scaly Glider
rdfs:comment
  • Bright flashes of color appear in the heights, up among the branches, creepers and trunks of the Amazon Rainforest canopy. To and fro, the colors dart, like large butterflies, swooping and wheeling in the breezes, then flopping onto a branch and blending instantly with the mottled bark in the dappled sunshine. These are not butterflies, however, but some of the smallest non-avian dinosaurs that have ever existed. Descended from the same coelurosaur stock as the arbrosaurs, the scaly gliders adapted to a gliding life with the evolution of the flowering plants and hence, the butterflies. The latter represent the gliders' principal food. A controlled dive and glide through the air can bring a scaly glider close to a butterfly at rest on a flower, and, with a quick snatch of pointed jaws, the
dcterms:subject
abstract
  • Bright flashes of color appear in the heights, up among the branches, creepers and trunks of the Amazon Rainforest canopy. To and fro, the colors dart, like large butterflies, swooping and wheeling in the breezes, then flopping onto a branch and blending instantly with the mottled bark in the dappled sunshine. These are not butterflies, however, but some of the smallest non-avian dinosaurs that have ever existed. Descended from the same coelurosaur stock as the arbrosaurs, the scaly gliders adapted to a gliding life with the evolution of the flowering plants and hence, the butterflies. The latter represent the gliders' principal food. A controlled dive and glide through the air can bring a scaly glider close to a butterfly at rest on a flower, and, with a quick snatch of pointed jaws, the insect is caught and the glider sails on to rest and digest. Flying and gliding animals frequently evolve in tropical forests. With the network of massive boughs and close-growing branches, animals can easily jump from one tree to another. The more aerodynamic the animal's shape, the further it can jump. The conditions are perfect for the evolution of gliding structures that can carry an animal over even longer spaces. In the case of the scaly glider, these structures consist of broad scales projecting sideways from the body. In flight, they turn the animal into an aerodynamic skimmer, while at rest, they help to camouflage it against the tree-bark. They are brightly hued beneath, but drab when seen from above.
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