"The problem we faced is that the legs of Microraptor, like on
any dinosaur, could not be splayed sideways," as the Chinese
paleontologists assumed. That means Microraptor could not have
extended its rear limbs to form a wing directly behind the front
wing. More likely, and more aerodynamically stable, would have
been a rear wing that was held lower than the front wing ? what
from the side would look like a staggered biplane configuration,
Chatterjee explains. Chatterjee and Templin fed Microraptor's
flight data into a computer simulation that they have previously
used to successfully analyze the flying abilities of pterosaurs
and Archaeopteryx. Based on the aeronautical analysis, it
appears that Microraptor flights looked rather like those seen
today among some "monoplane" forest birds -- something called
undulating phugoid gliding, Chatterjee said. In other words,
Microraptor launched from a high branch and dove off, falling
head-first until it reached a speed that created lift on its
wings. With that lift