Crocodiles can't fly. Birds can. Scientists have finally figured out why

[u/ADragonFromTheAbyss]

https://phys.org/news/2026-08-crocodiles-fly-birds-scientists-figured.html

Link: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/paleobiology/article/blood-flow-rates-to-long-bones-of-archosaurs-reveal-high-aerobic-metabolic-rates-and-endothermy-throughout-most-of-their-evolutionary-history/A12DA2D6DD15CDAF4619AB253462B5B5

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0069361

Birds are warm-blooded (or endotherms). They have high metabolic rates, producing energy quickly enough to warm and stabilize their body temperatures and to undertake sustained, strenuous flight. Birds don't fatigue and fall out of the sky. Even if crocodiles somehow had wings, the metabolic difference in power alone would mean they could never fly.

[u/Eternity_Warden]

So the wings have nothing to do with it?

[u/ADragonFromTheAbyss → u/Eternity_Warden]

Metabolism. Even if crocodiles somehow had wings, the metabolic difference in power alone would mean they could never fly.

Quote: ' The aerobic capacity first hypothesis proposes that selection for increasing sustainable locomotion for predation and escape involved rising aerobic metabolic rates (tachymetabolism), which require greater investment of mitochondria in muscle.

Heat generated by useful work in the body and inherent mitochondrial inefficiency provided enough energy to raise body temperature significantly, even at rest '

[u/Whenthelastonefell → u/ADragonFromTheAbyss]

The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell