01/23/10 @ 6:49AM EST
posted by will

...for Emus and Ostriches. Research posted in Systemic Biology shows that the loss of flight ability closely correlates to the era of dinosaur extinction. With their primary predators gone, Ratites (the order of flightless birds that include the "ostrich, rheas, kiwi, emu, and cassowaries, along with extinct members, such as moa and elephant birds" gradually lost the ability to fly due to massive weight gain.

I for one anticipate that someday humans will become too fat to run or walk if our only predator ever dies out.

This development would eliminate the need for certain patterns of continental breakup. If these birds could once fly, we wouldn't need to have the continents once aligned in patterns in which they could walk from one to another where they are currently found.

[Photo: Flickr]
[Discovered: Telegraph]
[Via: @tweetscience]

Spielberg should have made
Flying ostriches, et al
In Jurassic Park

Godspeed.

[Tags: science]