Robots run the experiments. Grad students fix them from bed - Scientific American

More than 250 million years ago, weigeltisaurids became the first vertebrates to glide through the air, with a flight system unlike anything alive today. Long before birds, bats or even dinosaurs, a small reptile lineage became the first known vertebrates to glide through the air. Weigeltisaurids achieved flight using an unusual wing system built from entirely new bones anchored to the side of their abdomen, and new research shows these early fliers were capable, well-engineered gliders.