Which living creatures can swim and fly, but not walk?
Whenever I see this picture I think of this:
| Creature | Swims | Walks | Flies |
| -------- | ----- | ----- | ----- |
| Dog | X | X | |
| Fish | X | | |
| Bird | | X | X |
| Duck | X | X | X |
Notice how for each combination of swimming, walking and flying, there is a living creature that can do just that, with the exception of swimming and flying.
Sure there are flying fish, but they glide rather than fly. Did evolution really forget to cover this niche?
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Dragonflies.
Their nymph phase is aquatic and in their adult phase they only fly. Their legs are only for grasping.
Pretty sure I've seen dragon flies crawling along plants on land?
They can shift around a little bit, but they don't really walk as a means of travel.
Yes, you are pretty sure. Glad I could answer your question.
Good idea! I think fireflies can walk (over short distances), but maybe there are other insects close to water that can't.
Flying Fish
They don't really fly though, just glide a short distance after a jump.
Falling, with style!
If they actually generate lift I’d call it flying, but I don’t know if they do
Gliding requires lift, but the forward momentum they have is mostly generated while they're still in the water as far as I know.
That's more than I do.
Same. I can't even swim.
Note that Markdown does tables:
Yields:
Thanks, but it didn't render well on my client, so I wanted to play save.
Sounds like it's time to report an issue
Depends on the markdown dialect, it's not a standard feature. I didn't know Lemmy supports it.
These things:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_fish
The common loon flies and swims, but isn't able to walk.
TIL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NK7t3cff30
Thanks! That's exactly what I've been searching for.
Cormorants don't walk well... Their legs are set far back on their body for more efficient swimming.
I think this and loons are the closest to what I've been searching for! I even found a video of a loon having to be rescued because it's unable to walk.
Loons are another one.
Flying fish
The fish only says it can't walk
lungfish
Okay, but does it fly? Find me a fish that can do all three
Lungfish in a hang glider
A paraplegic seaplane pilot
Genus Chrysopelea, commonly referred to as flying snakes. Most snakes are perfectly fine swimmers, so I bet that Genus can swim as well.
I personally can't wait for the snakenado trilogy to come out
That's pretty cool and also quite scary!
You have to take a restrictive definition of "walk", though.
huh, is it restrictive to say that you need some number of legs to be able to walk?
In this context, one way of looking at it is just propulsion against the ground vs. through the air or through the water. By that definition snakes, or even something like snails, are walkers.
And, for what it's worth, even if you require legs there are edge cases. Is inchworming a kind of slither, or a kind of walk?
We need to add digging/ tunneling to the grid.
I've always been of the opinion since fish can breathe underwater just like birds breathe above water, all fish are technically flying in their own environment.
Does that also mean that birds swim in the air?
Air is just significantly less dense water.
I would say yes.
Loon
That actually might be the best answer! Flying fish only glide.
It's called a @[email protected]
All fish fly, just not through the air.
And, uh, The Common Loon is a creature that can swim and fly, but can't walk. It's feet are too far back to be able to walk.
Dolphins?
They fly?
So long and thanks for all the fish ...
They fly now
If you bolt jet packs onto them, yes.
I don’t think ducks walk; they waddle 😂
So do I when I get hit in the balls
Thanks for sharing.
Ttiwwop
Unlike geese, who menace
I would vote for the gannet as able to fly and swim. They dive incredibly fast to catch fish, so they go deep, and once down there, they use their wings to swim after fish.
Great article here, with photos: https://www.naturettl.com/underwater-world-gannets/
So while it needs to get out to breathe, it can still swim underwater for as long as it has breath. Nice.
However, those feet look like they can be used to walk.
Yes, that's true. But it's more a stumbling waddle than a walk. I looked at some videos of gannet colonies, and hardly any of the tens of thousands of birds are walking. I think like most of these diving seabirds their feet are set well back.
This is a really nice vid of a Canadian colony: https://youtu.be/g9bzWqfIu2Y
Considering that I am including a snake's movements in "walking" in this context, I'd say that's good enough.
Honestly though, considering 2/3 of the planet surface (and increasing) is water, one would think there would be some answer to this, but I suppose it has something to do with the physics of it...
So I think that the air-time of flying-fish is optimised more than enough for such a purpose and that the birds that we see diving to get food are more from the evolutionary route of - land animals that can fly, adapting to get food from deeper into the water.
I'm finding this discussion so interesting! It's honestly something I'd never thought of at all, but it's an excellent exercise for my brain. Gannets have evolved special protection for their brains when diving, btw. They hit the water at 60mph. I wish we'd evolved some cooler attributes than opposable thumbs and walking upright. Gills, for example. Ah well.
IANAScientist, but maybe being a creature that can potentially fly onto land but not be able to walk once there was an evolutionary disadvantage, and was bred out.
You're right, but apparently this is a trade-off that paid off for some of the creatures in this thread.
Ducks are birds
Japanese flying squids?
Only walk could be an ant, I guess, but what about only fly?
Some species of ants form rafts and "swim" on water.
🦇
Here's an australian lungfish
Here's linda the lungfish
A puffin?!
A puffin!?
Flying fish!