Nathan Johnson, a graduate student at Texas A&M-Galveston who also teaches in the marine biology department, and colleagues from Harvard, California Institute of Technology, Providence College, Indiana University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute have studied the complex ways animal movements have evolved over millions of years and through hundreds of species. The more we learn about animal propulsion and the way it’s been developed over millions of years of evolution, the more it can help us with human engineering and how we can improve our own movement.” 
 
 The project was funded by the National Science Foundation. It’s not that they probably can’t exceed these angles, but rather doing so is just not energetically efficient for them.. 
 
 “There does seem to be a universal range of movement in the species we looked at, from the fruit fly to the humpback whale.” 
 
 The team found that a 30 to 60-degree angle seems to be the magic range of how far animal propulsion can bend. "Until now, we have been able to observe animals using flexible wings or fins but we haven't known anything about how flexible a successful wing might need to be," Johnson said.
– When it comes to movement, human engineering has much to learn from Mother Nature, says a new study in Nature Communications. Researchers found that animals of all kinds use the same essential mechanics to move whether on land, air, or water, reports the Houston Chronicle, which likens it to a "magic formula." In other words, "the fin of a fish moves just like the wing of a bird," explains Texas A&M's Tamu Times. And it's no accident: "The best reason we can think that these similarities are there in nature is that they are the most energy efficient," says an A&M researcher. The team looked at everything from insects to birds to whales to fish to molluscs, and found that the secret is in their flexible wings, fins, and tails. It's all about the bend, which always falls into a range of 30% to 60%. It's not that they can't bend further, it's that it doesn't make aerodynamic sense. Compared with how we get around on our man-made contraptions, animals show "a potentially perfect universal design," the Chronicle notes—and scientists hope they can steal some wisdom to help technology catch up. Maybe someday, then, fixed-wing aircraft will be replaced by planes with bendable wings. (Elsewhere in the animal kingdom, researchers found that your dog really does know when you're happy.)