Frisbee The Looooooong Way
In South and Southeast Asia live the 5 species of the genus Chrysopelea, The Flying Snakes. Right off the bat, can't achieve powered flight. It's a gliding snake, but think about it. It's a snake. It's got no arms, no wings, no loose flaps of skin; but it can glide over 100 meters! This thing has the flying squirrel beat by 10 meters. What makes this thing any different from any other snake?
Well if you pull your shoulders all the way back, puff your chest all the way out, and suck your stomach all the way in; you'll notice that your rib cage never opened. The flying snakes' do! It's a snake so they're all ribs from their head down to their tail (yes snakes have tails). Across almost their whole body, they squish their organs up towards their spine and pull their ribs open to make their body a wing.
They get out to the edge of a branch, flatten themselves out, calculate a flight plan, and jump!
That curved arch they've made out of their belly works just like a frisbee does. It captures air in a high pressure pocket below generating lift up on the snake. Not enough to fly but enough to glide.
Now frisbees ride that high pressure pocket really well because they spin, the lift acting on a different place on the disc every moment to keep it stable. The snake does the same thing by slithering through they air, making lots of pockets for the wind to hit.
And then when they land, they've got to land on their stomachs right? The same stomachs with their ribs wide open and all their organs exposed? I can't find anything about them landing or tucking their ribs in at the last moment. They must really glide so gently that the landing is delicate. In this part of the world, gliding animals are a lot more common. They've got a lot of trees like Diterocarp trees with no branches in the lower levels making getting up off the ground a real hassle.
I quite like this sentient flying belt. It's adorable and it's also somebody's worst fear come to life. I think I'd name it a flying snake if I saw it myself, it just looks spectacular and falls so slow. The sucked in stomach being their big movement adaptation makes me wonder if they live off of a light stomach compared to other snakes. This gets a really high score from me: