First 'birds' lived 235 million years ago
Experts claim to have discovered the first 'birds' which flew in the sky over 235 million years ago.
The Kuehneosaurs were 70cm long reptiles which jumped from trees in European forests and used extraordinary extensions of their ribs to glide.
Pre-dating the first recorded bird by 50 million years they are now believed to be the first 'flying' animal.
Scientists from the University of Bristol say that while the creatures were discovered in the 1950s their research is the first to indicate their flying ability.
The team created life-size models of the Kuehneosaurs and tested them in a wind tunnel to discover how they stayed airborne.
Palaeobiologist Koen Stein, said: "We didn’t think kuehneosaurs would have been very efficient in the air, but all the work up to now had been speculation, so we decided to build models and test them in the wind tunnel.
"Surprisingly, we found that Kuehneosuchus was aerodynamically very stable. Jumping from a five-metre tree, it could easily have crossed nine metres distance before landing on the ground. The other form, Kuehneosaurus, was more of a parachutist than a glider.
"We also built webbed hands and feet and had an extra skin membrane between the legs on the models, but these made the flight of the animals unstable, suggesting that they probably did not have such features."
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