Arthropod aloft: the anatomical and biomechanical origins of aerial behavior (13.1)

Abstract

Diverse animal taxa exhibit remarkable aerial capacities, including jumping, aerial righting, parachuting, gliding, landing, controlled maneuvers, and flapping flight. The origin of wings in hexapods greatly facilitated subsequent lineage diversification, but both the paleobiological context and possible selective pressures for wing evolution remain contentious. Larvae of various arboreal hemimetabolous insects, as well as many canopy ants, demonstrate the capacity for directed aerial descent in the absence of wings. Aerial control in the ancestrally wingless archaeognathans also suggests that flight behavior preceded the origins of wings in hexapods. In evolutionary terms, the use of of winglets and partial wings to effect aerial righting and gliding maneuvers could select for enhanced appendicular motions, and ultimately lead to powered flight. Flight behaviors that involve neither flapping nor wings are likely much more widespread than is currently recognized. Further characterization of the sensory and biomechanical mechanisms used by these aerially capable taxa can potentially assist in reconstruction of ancestral winged morphologies and facilitate our understanding of the origins of flight.