The Evolution of African Wild Dogs who can float

The 'Before' Picture

Imagine if African Wild Dogs developed the ability to float. There is no scientific explanation to how they can float; it's just happened and we do not need to know why. The dogs can only gain this ability in early adulthood, so they remain land animals through childhood. Lastly, it is very tiring to float for a sustained period, so their forays into the air would have to be in short bursts.

They can float constantly at a particular height, or fly upwards to a certain altitude (at a fair clip), or dive at faster than gravity acceleration and even slow down at will. Obviously, they can't do much in terms of horizontal movement once they're airborne. Lastly, the ability to float is practically unaffected by the weight of the dogs.

The "After" Picture

Millions of years pass. The wild dogs are now predators with wings and four legs. They were already really smart on account of being pretty social, but having to operate and manipulate six limbs instead of four has probably led them to use more of their brains (I'm no expert on this but it seems to make sense).

Question How would the wild dogs have evolved to get here? Are wings even a possibility or do they become super-hoppers?

EDIT: Just to be clear the idea is to have a somewhat logical evolutionary path from "before" to "after". We don't need to know how and why they float, but rather what happens after that. Do remember that we're talking about African Wild Dogs in particular, and not just any land animal, so the more your answer incorporates that the better it is! If the most logical evolutionary path does not lead to the above "after" situation, then the alternative is also welcome!

posted almost 9 years ago

Ambarish Sathianathan‭

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