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One thing I don't understand about evolution is the middle phase (until present-day). I find myself wondering a lot about flight. I understand that perhaps, before they were capable of flight, bats could have used their hands to glide like many animals do. But at one point in time, when the mutation first-appeared.. It must have been absolutely useless, right?
So one or a few bats randomly appear with webbed fingers. Was it just an incredible amount of luck or did this extremely insignificant webbing brought enough benefit to the animal to escape death and give it the opportunity to mate in order to pass down the gene?
Basically, why did bats' finger webbing keep expanding to the point where they were able to glide and then ultimately, fly? It HAD to be of some use until then, right? Or was it complete luck?
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Bumping, I'm legitimately curious.
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I believe one theory involves a lack of rugged terrain and possible aquatic adaptations. I know that rugged terrain generally reduces webbing as seen in some Hawaiian geese that live on lava fields, but I guess trees or whatever environment bats evolved in didn't create the same limitation. At that point, it was possible that the skin either stretched far enough to slow descent, or it was useful enough to escape in the water below the canopy.
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>>2239616
they likely jumped from branch to branch and even small webbing would help with that.
they may have also caught flying insects with their hands like some modern bats do, and again any webbing would help.
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The 'middle ground' was likely very similar to modern sugar gliders - look at the way the extra skin and limb arrangement could easily lend itself to wing development, given time and similar pressures those bat ancestors were faced with.
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>>2243298
Forgot the pic, as usual
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>>2239616
Webbing is actually regulated by a couple of genes and proteins (I don't remember exaclty what was the exact process but it involved the gremlin protein).
You can actually make unwebbed ducks and webbed feet chickens by altering the exposure of certain cells to those proteins during limb development. So I'd say it was a relatively quick process.
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>>2245015
That's pretty interesting. I think they found they could get a chicken beak to turn out much more like a dinosaur bill with just a few genes changed too.
Pic related, three unhatched skulls, chicken skull on the right, alligator on the left, in the middle is the skull of the mldi
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>>2245159
Fucking 4chan pass lets me submit too easily on my phone.
Anyways middle skull is the genetically modified one. Only a few genes suppressed and you can already see the similarity.
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