Robot dinosaur tests surprising theory about the evolution of feathers

Feathers may have evolved on dinosaurs to frighten and flush out prey before they were used for flight, say researchers who built a winged robot and used it to scare grasshoppers. Pennaceous feathers, which are the stiff, non-downy feathers that have a central quill, are seen in fossils of some dinosaurs such as Caudipteryx, which lived about 124 million years ago. These dinosaurs had wings but they were not strong enough for flight, so it's unclear how they were used. Jinseok Park from Seoul National University, South Korea, and his colleagues hypothesised that they were used to startle prey into fleeing from hiding places, so they could be caught more easily. This "flush-pursuit" hunting strategy is used by modern birds including the greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) and the northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos).