A new theory on the atmospheric density 

And its role in the development of flying insects and reptiles (and probably of the large size of some dinosaurs).

The integrated theory that I've been developing during the last years involves a higher density atmosphere and a hyperoxic environment. 

The following paper argues that Earth atmosphere was denser and probably hyperoxic in the Mesozoic period when the first flying insects (and reptiles) appeared.

Atmospheric oxygen, giant paleozoic insects and the evolution of aerial locomotor performance

Röbert Dudley 

Uniformitarian approaches to the evolution of terrestrial locomotor physiology and animal flight performance have generally presupposed the constancy of atmospheric composition. Recent geophysical data as well as theoretical models suggest that, to the contrary, both oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations have changed dramatically during defining periods of metazoan evolution. Hyperoxia in the late Paleozoic atmosphere may have physiologically enhanced the initial evolution of tetrapod locomotor energetics; a concurrently hyperdense atmosphere would have augmented aerodynamic force production in early flying insects. Multiple historical origins of vertebrate flight also correlate temporally with geological periods of increased oxygen concentration and atmospheric density. Arthropod as well as amphibian gigantism appear to have been facilitated by a hyperoxic Carboniferous atmosphere and were subsequently eliminated by a late Permian transition to hypoxia. For extant organisms, the transient, chronic and ontogenetic effects of exposure to hyperoxic gas mixtures are poorly understood relative to contemporary understanding of the physiology of oxygen deprivation. Experimentally, the biomechanical and physiological effects of hyperoxia on animal flight performance can be decoupled through the use of gas mixtures that vary in density and oxygen concentration. Such manipulations permit both paleophysiological simulation of ancestral locomotor performance and an analysis of maximal flight capacity in extant forms. 

http://brendans-island.com/blogsource/20140826ff-Documents/JExpBiol-1998-Dudley-1043-50.pdf