How animals took to the air and conquered the skies

Instant Genius

The existence of flight in the animal kingdom is something that many of us take for granted. But on closer inspection, it can perhaps be thought of as one of the miracles of nature.

In this episode we catch up with the writer Lev Parikian about his book Taking Flight: How animals learned to fly and transformed life on Earth, which was shortlisted for Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize.

He tells us about how flight has evolved independently in four separate groups of animals, how bats became the only mammals capable of powered flight, and how some birds ended up losing the ability to fly altogether.

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