Animal flight is ecologically important and has a long evolutionary history. It has evolved independently in many distantly related clades of animals. Powered flight has evolved only three times in vertebrates, making it evolutionarily rare. Major recent fossil discoveries have provided key data on fossil flying vertebrates and critical insights regarding the evolution and different arrangements of animal flight surfaces. Combined with new methodologies, these discoveries have paved the way for potentially expanding biomimetic and biologically inspired designs to incorporate lessons from fossil taxa. Here, we review the latest knowledge and literature regarding flight performance in fossil vertebrates. We then synthesise key elements to provide an overview of those cases where fossil flyers might provide new insights for applied sciences.

动物的飞行在生态上很重要，并且具有悠久的进化历史。它已在许多远缘相关的动物进化枝中独立进化。动力飞行在脊椎动物中仅进化了3次，因此在进化上很少见。最近的主要化石发现提供了有关化石飞行脊椎动物的关键数据，以及有关动物飞行表面的演化和不同排列的重要见解。结合新的方法，这些发现为可能扩展仿生和受生物启发的设计以吸收化石分类学的教训铺平了道路。在这里，我们回顾了有关化石脊椎动物飞行性能的最新知识和文献。然后，我们综合了关键要素，以概述化石传单可能为应用科学提供新见解的情况。