Grasshoppers in South Korea may be on high alert, after scientists created a robotic version of an enemy from the insects’ distant past. In a series of experiments, researchers scared grasshoppers using a robo-dinosaur with training wheels and flapping wings. The findings suggest early dinosaurs evolved their tiny wings not to fly, but to flush out hidden prey, the team argues in a paper published last week in the journal Scientific Reports.
The unlikely predator, named “Robopteryx,” is the modern reboot of Caudipteryx, a three-foot-long omnivorous dinosaur that lived in present-day China more than 124 million years ago. Scientists at Seoul National University in South Korea thought the best way to study Caudipteryx’s behavior was to bring it, somewhat, back to life.
Researchers attached nine motors to a model based on the species’ fossils, and they strapped on wheels for stealth.
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