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There are many depictions of winged quadrupeds (tetrapods with 4 legs and wings as well), such as griffins, dragons, and Pegasus. Often they have a rather plausible-seeming shoulder anatomy

Could this anatomy, with 2 shoulders on the back and 2 more beside the breast, support a set of 4 functional wings instead?

The anatomy detailed above is what this question is about. If you fail to mention this anatomy and explain if it will work, you have not answered the question

Specifically I'd like all wings to contribute in flight towards generating lift and thrust, and steering themselves. The wings should also be purely for flying, as in most birds

I'm most worried about issues with the lower pair, as they seem to be many problems with such a structure, and no real world examples to reference

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  • $\begingroup$ Quick question to clear up a doubt: If you want all limbs to be purely for flight, do you mean you want creatures that never land? As for having 4 Wings, the 1st and potentially biggest issue against the idea would be the added weight of having an extra pair of wings, which means strong bones capable of handling the forces of flight and a good number of powerful muscles to match. $\endgroup$
    – ProjectApex
    Oct 21, 2021 at 22:52
  • $\begingroup$ (groan...) what do you intend to feed all those muscles with? And that sternum? Must be the heaviest bone in its entire body. "and no real world examples to reference" maybe there's a reason for which such creature never evolved in real world. $\endgroup$
    – Adrian Colomitchi
    Oct 21, 2021 at 23:03
  • $\begingroup$ @ProjectApex Just the wings should be dedicated to flight; the hindlimbs would be used for walking. And this question is about this sort of 4-winged flier, not 4-winged fliers in general $\endgroup$
    – Ichthys King
    Oct 21, 2021 at 23:10
  • $\begingroup$ Oh so a 4 winged wyvern style then? $\endgroup$
    – ProjectApex
    Oct 21, 2021 at 23:14
  • $\begingroup$ In specifying creatures such as a pegasus, a winged horse, you changed the fundamental aspect of your question from tetrapod to hexapod, thus invalidating the existing answer. $\endgroup$
    – elemtilas
    Oct 22, 2021 at 9:42

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It appears that a 6 or 8 limbed creature is envisaged with 4 limbs being wings. In that case I think it best to leave out shoulders altogether and have them come off the spine. This would keep the wings from interfering with the front limbs movements or anything else like the rib cage etc. It would be perfectly suited to flight since it supports centrally and is isolated from the muscles and bones used by the front limbs.

So like a dragonfly there is a mass of muscles centrally on the back with whatever bones and tendons would be necessary to work the wings (possibly what you mean by shoulders). The whole wing structures are not attached to the torso but the spine.

Pegasus is sometimes depicted as having wings coming from where shoulder blades would be which for obvious reasons makes no biological sense since it would interfere with the front limbs. Other times they come from a muscle mass on the back.

Angels were often depicted like this rather than having an extra set of shoulders or wings attached to existing shoulders. Two sets are just a matter of having another set lower down the spine.

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    $\begingroup$ What does this have to do with the shoulder structure this question is about? $\endgroup$
    – Ichthys King
    Oct 22, 2021 at 5:40
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    $\begingroup$ @IchthysKing -- Possibly because there's some confusion inherent in your question. The animal depicted seems to answer your question well: it is a tetrapod / quadruped, it's got four functioning wings and all the wings are used for flight. If you're asking about a creature that has four limbs for walking and an additional number of wings for flying, that's not made explicit in your question. You'd have to write a new question to clarify that! $\endgroup$
    – elemtilas
    Oct 22, 2021 at 8:01
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    $\begingroup$ @IchthysKing this is a winged quadruped/tetrapod. Perhaps you mean a hexapod? $\endgroup$
    – Kilisi
    Oct 22, 2021 at 9:26
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    $\begingroup$ Ok, well the question seems to mean something else, so perhaps you should edit it to reflect your meaning. You want a 6 or 8 limbed animal with 4 limbs being wings. Like a dragonfly or mayfly. Do you want it reptilian? Mammalian? Insect? $\endgroup$
    – Kilisi
    Oct 22, 2021 at 9:31
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    $\begingroup$ @IchthysKing remember: in insects wings did not come from limbs but from extensions of the exoskeleton. On vertebrates however wings originally come from the limbs of a creature. Therefore any vertebrate with 4 wings and 2 legs is a hexapod, even though we don't say a dragonfly is a decapod. $\endgroup$
    – ProjectApex
    Oct 22, 2021 at 15:39

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