Penguins - funny and a little ridiculous bird.Adults and children with the same interest in watching how the crowd of "lackeys" rushes to the ocean!And how incredible grace these creatures move under water, soaring on the wings of their young!And then there is quite a fair question, "Why do not penguins fly?" Let's try to highlight this issue in more detail.
Initially, scientists have assumed that they do not fly just because it occurred on the flightless ancestors.Such opinion was facilitated by the fact that the same good cormorants fly and float, moving on their wings in the two environments.
But now that view has been refuted.The fact that the scientists noticed one small detail, studying photo penguin and his "associates."It turned out that the above is equally bad cormorants can move in the air and in the water.The ability to fly at such "diverse" feathered inferior to that of conventional "Lord of heaven", and the ability to swim even more mediocre and can not be compared with the art ballet in the water the penguins.
It was then that scientists and theorized evolutionary expediency: why you need to fly if it will still be getting bad?Questioning why the penguins can not fly, the researchers forget about the real need for the flight.Indeed, the majority of this species living in very harsh conditions in Antarctica.To survive in severe local winter, they have to store a huge amount of fat.Naturally, from an evolutionary point of view, this approach is to survive much more justified because it allows the animal for a long time without food in the most difficult and cold winter days.
So, modern researchers have an excellent answer to the question of why a penguin can not fly: this kind simply abandoned flight in favor of more urgent needs.As you can see, these birds are not lost, keeping their population and habitat.
However, science has a lot of questions, in comparison with which hypothetically flying penguin looks like it does not matter.Most of the discrepancies associated just with the ability to diving: still unclear mechanism that allows large species of diving to a depth of impressive.So, the famous emperor penguin is able to dive deeper into the half a kilometer and stay there for 20 minutes!
The question is not only in the biochemical processes that allow big and muscular "Emperor" for such a long time without air, but also in how such a large and largely overland body can withstand the monstrous pressure drops and avoid decompression sickness.
The latter is particularly important.After all, people can not dive without protective equipment to a depth of 100 meters, and the dive itself, together with the rise of the surface must be performed in a short period of time.How to deal with it, our hero?Scientists still do not know ... So it's time to stop thinking about why a penguin can not fly.It is better to make your mental capacity to resolve more pressing and complex problems.
