Roy writes:

> Quite right. And isn't it interesting how evolution had its products
>  flying millions of years before ours did?

Controlled, powered flight has been invented independently five times in the
history of life the earth: in pterosaurs, in insects, in birds, in bats and in
man (that is, if you don't count flight through that other fluid, water,
where arthropods, fish, birds and mammals also "fly").

Uncontrolled, non-powered flight has been invented many more times than that:
in seeds, in spiders, in snakes, in mammals, etc. [Just as an aside, spiders
are often among the first animals to reach remote, newly formed volcanic
islands. They perform this "miraculous" task by a mechanism called "parachuting" or
"ballooning", where they weave a special silken thread that is designed to
catch the wind and carry them vast distances.]

Wirt Atmar


Wirt Atmar

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