a trade

[asakiyume]

This question popped into my head when I looked out my window and saw a catbird balancing on a stick, using its wings to help it balance.

Would you trade your arms and hands for wings?

Comments

[asakiyume]

I was thinking mainly of the gravity of the tradeoff. Who hasn't wanted to fly? But when we imagine flying, we're not imagining losing anything, just gaining something. But I was thinking about how fish with fins, land animals with legs or legs and arms, and birds with legs and wings--we're all on the same pattern. So if you gain wings, you lose fins and arms. And if you gain fins, you lose wings and arm and legs, and if you gain arms and legs, you lose fins and wings.

I like your creatures that you'd like to experience, though, especially the water dwelling ones. I don't know much about rays--what is it about them that draws you?

[light_of_summer]

The trade-off would be grave, indeed. Not that we humans haven't experienced some tradeoffs, compared to our distant evolutionary ancestors, e.g., I've heard that the muscles to support human pregnancy are not fully evolved for upright stature (evolution of hands vs. more backaches, yes?), and that our infants have prolonged dependence on their parents because they need to be born while their large brains can still fit through their mothers' pelvic openings...

What I like most about rays is how gracefully they move—like dancers. They have cartilaginous skeletons, and their enlarged pectoral fins are very flexible. I also like the diamond-ish shape of bat rays and manta rays. And their texture—I got to touch some young bat rays in a petting pool at the Monterey Bay Acquarium, once, and I remember them as feeling very smooth to the touch. 😌

Short video that includes glimpses of bat rays moving through water

[asakiyume]

Oh yes! It's beautiful how they move. I like how they move their sides--are those their pectoral fins?--up and down; it's like wing beats. How wonderful that you got to touch them!

[light_of_summer]

Yes, rays' winglike sides are pectoral fins (to the best of my knowledge).

Because water resistance makes rays' flight-like movements slower than the wingbeats of birds, I actually find their movements more enjoyable to watch than the movements of any birds I know except maybe swallows.

The internet tells me that rays feel smooth when stroked in one direction, and sandpapery-rough when stroked in a different direction, like sharks do, but I only remember the smoothness.

As far as I can remember, the baby bat rays in the petting pool were about 8 to 10 inches across, from wingtip to wingtip, and dark-colored above but light-colored on their undersides. Watching and touching them is a very fond memory. 😌

[asakiyume]

It *sounds* very special--thank you for sharing it!