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Flying geckos
Topic Started: Jun 8 2010, 12:49 PM (2,097 Views)
Carlos
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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I've pretty much overlooked modern gliding geckos all this time, when they are probably the reptiles with the biggest chances of going aerial.

I invision future flying geckos as having bat like wings, derived as the membranes along the arms and legs fused to the flaps along the torso. The digits of tthe forelimbs, all with mebranes within them already, and with the thumb already clawless, would be all wing fingers; they could still retain the pads that allow them to climb, thus having the fingers still having the function of gluing the animal to a vertical surface in other to rest, or they could just loose them all together and instead rely just on their feet to stay attached, thus somewhat looking like bats when perching, using their hindlimbs to glue themselves to rocks or trees upside down. I doubt they'd go bipedal though, considering their anatomy.
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http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/

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http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/

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ATEK Azul
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I think a flying gecko would catch things with its torso and kill it with its back legs. I also agree that the toes of the wing should stick to things.
I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's!
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

Well, practical range is a problem. Why jump onto things like flies and other insects?
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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ATEK Azul
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Small things might just be bitten into instead?
I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's!
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

So they eat big things? How would they get a mouse to stick to them?
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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Nemo Ramjet
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It was once seriously suggested (by David Peters,) that pterosaurs were overgrown lizards. If the geckos evolve body covering from modified setae, they wouldn't necessarily need to stick anywhere. The structures would be -derived from- setae, with abnormal lengths, etc that would render their stickiness inoperable. Actually, the branching nature of gecko setae would make these structures much more likelier to develop into barbed and branching feather-like things.
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TheCoon
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Maybe they could evovle like the himalayan flying frog at first, with abnormaly big webbed feet to glide, and then evolve it in some way to wings.
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ATEK Azul
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Hey glad to see you Nemo.

As for the frog foot step of evolution it might work but it would make a weird wing eventually.
I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's!
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MitchBeard
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...there are already gliding geckos though.

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So I don't know what thecoon means by "at first"
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Carlos
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Quote:
 
...there are already gliding geckos though.


Yes, because that wasn't so obvious to the point it isn't the inspiration for this topic in the first place [/sarcasm]

Anyway, considering the wing structure, I'd say flying geckos would have indeed membranous wings like pterosaurs and bats before them, but the setae covering the body would perhaps end up like feathers as Nemo Ramjet suggested. Thus, much like anurognathids and their pycnofibril covered membranes the wings of these flying geckos would be covered by setae, helping in insulation. This could mean they would be more cold tolerant than, say, bats.
Lemuria:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/

Terra Alternativa:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/

My Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/Carliro

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Cephylus
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setae for insulation? meaning that these flying geckos would appear in more temperate latitudes?
And I saw all the replies on the adhesive characteristic of gecko setae, but my opinion is that they'd evolve into fast-flying aerial predators(maybe like small pterosaurs in the Mesozoic?) rather than using stickiness as a method of catching prey, and their setae would lose all adhesiveness..
membranes covered with feather-like setate kind of gives me a weird image...but I guess it's plausible.
Edited by Cephylus, Jun 29 2010, 09:53 AM.
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Ook
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how about colugos,aka flying lemurs?
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Cephylus
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You mean colugo-style wings, with loose membranes stretched between wings instead of bat/pterosaur like ones?

I think colugo-stlye wings aren't very good for fast flying...
Edited by Cephylus, Jun 29 2010, 09:59 AM.
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Ook
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i mean they have potentional to create flying forms too,..there is alsogliding rodents and glidding marsupials
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Cephylus
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Oh sorry, I didn't understand :O.o:
I guess there'd be competition....I guess gliding mammals can maybe evovle into false bats
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Toad of Spades
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A feather-like integument and wing membrane combination could be possible. Not just lightly covering the wing membranes, but actually working in tandem with them. Sort of like a "feather" covered pterosaur wing.
Edited by Toad of Spades, Jun 29 2010, 04:01 PM.
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