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Animals that Fly

Only four kinds of animals have ever learned how to truly fly: insects, birds, bats, and pterosaurs.

Insects are the oldest fliers. They have been flitting about for 300 million years or more. They flap specialized wings to get around. Pterosaurs, birds, and bats all turned their arms and hands into wings, and used flaps of skin or grew feathers to give them the big, wide shape they need to create lift. We humans can’t fly because our arms and hands are best suited for holding tools, not grabbing the air!

Pterosaurs were like flying dinosaurs, and they are extinct now. That’s probably a good thing, because the biggest ones were as big as a Cessna airplane! Some people think pterosaurs survived until quite recently, and that’s what legendary dragons really were. What do you think?

There are many other animals that can glide or parachute, like flying fish and flying squirrels, but they can’t take off from the ground and they can’t sustain themselves in the air. But they use fins, feet, stretched skin, or flattened bodies to create enough lift to slow their fall and travel forward. Some flying fish are such good gliders that they can skim more than 300 yards over the waves!

know what?

Not everything with wings can glide. Only three kinds of insects can stay in the air without moving their wings. Which ones? Butterflies, dragonflies, and locusts. That’s why butterflies can migrate thousands of miles. They can rest their wings while they glide. All the other insects have to flap frantically all the time. Whew!