why can’t penguins fly?
Oh I’d say about 3
Penguins evolved not to fly in order to occupy a niche other birds did not. Evolutionary pressure selected for penguins that were excellent at swimming and catching fish, and since land predators aren’t common in the types of environments they occupy there was no need for flight as an escape mechanism.
Also see here:
Some people say the way they swim is like flying underwater.
Having seen penguins swimming up close, I’d have to agree.
I agree with Darwin’s Finch – penguins do, indeed, “fly” underwater, and do so to escape from predators.
Semantics. I call that swimming.
It’s not entirely semantics. As mentioned in the second link, the limb motion is the same as for standard flight (which is different from, say, whale-flipper motions). The only difference is the medium they are flying through.
Penguin wings can’t generate enough lift to overcome the earth’s gravity. I suppose that if we ever get around to providing Mars, or better, Ceres, with a thick atmosphere, flying flocks of penguin could become a common sight.
If anyone’s interested, here are some movies of the Adelie Penguin in “flight”.
The fact that all of their feathers are short and hairlike is a big factor since the big long feathers are what give bird wings enough surface area for flight.
Let me wind up my catapult, I’ll show you a flying penguin!
Squink’s idea is so appealing, any mechanically minded biologist out there want to hazard a guess as to wether Penguins could fly on a low gravity planet?
IIRC, most (7 out of 22 species) of penguins live in warm temperate climates. It is fair to say most penguins hate the cold weather. Anyone ever been to South Africa? They’re all over the place. And it’s certainly not cold there. African Black Footed Penguins I believe their called…just some useless trivia.
Do you see a merely semantic difference between dirigibles and airplanes?