Re: Flight capablities of Archie & Confucius? Not so good...

[Erik Boehm <erikboehm07@yahoo.com>]

> Archaeopteryx lived at beaches or small lagoons and looked
> for food exact at that line where water reaches land and
> transports small marine animals (I think "drift line" is the
> right expression). Archaeopteryx picked up small fishes and
> crabs and moved in this environment by hopping with help of
> its feathers and staying away from the breaking waves.

If archaeopteryx lived at a beach, and if there was a reliable sea breeze, it 
would not need to flap to fly.

Beaches are excellent soaring locations for hang gliders, many renowned for the 
# of days per year that they are soarable (some over 2/3).

If Archie was using the seabreeze to get around, we should focus more on its 
sink rate, than its glide ratio.

If you are a beach scavenger/opportunist unpowered gliding flight could help 
immensely, just cruise up and down the beach looking for food that has washed 
up.
The question is what the intermediate form would be? a tree gliderthat found 
its wings useful on the beach? and moved more towards powererd flight for 
getting back into the air without climbing a small (1 meter or less would 
suffice) sand dune?
Some sort of land sail wings?
I am not aware of any terrestrial animal that uses wind power to get around 
like people do in land sailing races out on dry lakebeds in the desert, or kite 
surfers with skateboards on land.

Perhaps a variant of WAIR, where the wings just helped it run up a hill/dune 
faster with a tailwind, and maintain its balance when it runs down a hill/dune?
It could be useful at some coastal dunes I suppose.

They had aerodynamic surfaces, we need not think of jumping and flapping, and 
falling to generate sufficient airflow for the surfaces to be useful.
Lets not ignore the possible role of a relatively constant sea breeze.

--- On Tue, 5/18/10, Hammann Textbüro <hammann-textbuero@online.de> wrote:

> From: Hammann Textbüro <hammann-textbuero@online.de>
> Subject: Re: Flight capablities of Archie & Confucius? Not so good...
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Date: Tuesday, May 18, 2010, 12:09 PM
>
llowing ideas:
> Archaeopteryx lived at beaches or small lagoons and looked
> for food exact at that line where water reaches land and
> transports small marine animals (I think "drift line" is the
> right expression). Archaeopteryx picked up small fishes and
> crabs and moved in this environment by hopping with help of
> its feathers and staying away from the breaking waves. Maybe
> Archaeopteryx also searched for prey at paddles on the
> beaches by creating a shadow over the water with its
> feathers which attracts smaller animals to come nearer (as
> you know, some birds are hunting in this way), and then
> catching the prey with help of arms and claws.
> 
> Are these scenarios very unlikely?
> 
> Greetings again
> 
> Thomas
>