re: Pterosaur Track Show Bird-Like Landing

[David Peters <davidrpeters@charter.net>]

Pterosaur tracks show it touched down like a bird New Scientist - 19  
August 2009 by Colin Barras
More at: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17633-pterosaur-tracks-show-it-touched-down-like-a- 
 bird.html


Dr. Padian had me create a short GIF movie showing how this was done,  
which he showed as part of his presented abstract. This is available  
on request.
I don't think any 4-point touchdown has been envisioned yet for  
pterosaurs, but there's one here for bats
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/03/20/multimedia/1194838795031/four-point-landing.html
And here's the complementary 2-point landing, both inverted
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/03/20/multimedia/1194838795145/two-point-landing.html
and then there's the swimming stroke
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39767/title/Fifty-two_things_to_do_with_a_bat_wing

Those darn bats!

David Peters
St. Louis