How giant pterosaurs soared the high skies
November 24th, 2010 - 2:57 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Nov 24 (ANI): A new research has revealed interesting insights into the flying techniques of pterosaurs.
The ancient reptiles that flew over the heads of dinosaurs - were at their best in gentle tropical breezes, soaring over hillsides and coastlines or floating over land and sea on thermally driven air currents, said the study from the University of Bristol.
Their slow flight and the variable wing geometry enabled them to land very gently reducing the chance of breaking their paper- thin bones.
“Pterosaur wings were adapted to a low-speed flight regime that minimizes sink rate. This regime is unsuited to marine style dynamic soaring adopted by many seabirds which requires high flight speed coupled with high aerodynamic efficiency, but is well suited to thermal/slope soaring. The low sink rate would have allowed pterosaurs to use the relatively weak thermal lift found over the sea,” said Colin Palmer.
“Since the bones of pterosaurs were thin-walled and thus highly susceptible to impact damage, the low-speed landing capability would have made an important contribution to avoiding injury and so helped to enable pterosaurs to attain much larger sizes than extant birds.
“The trade-off would have been an extreme vulnerability to strong winds and turbulence, both in flight and on the ground, like that experienced by modern-day paragliders.” (ANI)
- Pterosaurs 'soared' like paragliders and landed softly - Nov 25, 2010
- Fossils of oldest flying reptile found in Texas - Mar 02, 2011
- Pterosaur footprints show it touched down like most modern birds - Aug 19, 2009
- Rare flying reptile Aetodactylus halli identified as new pterosaur genus, species - Apr 28, 2010
- Paragliders wait in Himachal for CWG to conclude - Oct 13, 2010
- 89mn-yr-old flying reptile fossils could be 'world's oldest Pteranodon' - Mar 02, 2011
- Over 200 pilots to take wings in Himachal - Oct 15, 2011
- Low-level aerial surveys aim to understand rapid Antarctic melting - Oct 08, 2009
- Construction on Bloodhound 'supercar' to begin this week - Feb 08, 2011
- Giraffe-sized dinos pole-vaulted to fly - Nov 16, 2010
- Soaring is better than flapping for big and small birds - Dec 09, 2010
- 70 paragliders to test skills in Himachal skies - Nov 11, 2010
- How giant dinos soared the high skies - Nov 15, 2010
- Tiny fossil part reveals biggest-ever toothed pterosaur - Oct 16, 2011
- Pterosaurs could fly non-stop for 10,000 miles - Oct 20, 2010
Tags: aerodynamic efficiency, air currents, ancient reptiles, coastlines, colin palmer, flight regime, flight speed, high flight, hillsides, impact damage, land and sea, larger sizes, low speed, seabirds, slow flight, speed flight, thin bones, tropical breezes, university of bristol, wing geometry