Re: vaulting pterosaur launch, questions

[Michael Habib <mhabib5@jhmi.edu>]

> > > Apart from bringing one back to life somehow, exactly how do we 
> > > "properly" establish that Archie flew?  The fossil evidence is 
> > > entirely consistent with an animal that was most likely at least a 
> > > rudimentary flapping flyer.
> >
> > Actually, it's a bit mixed in this regard.
>
> Not very.

Actually, it may be more uncertain than previously thought.  I was 
pretty well convinced that Archaeopteryx must have been volant until 
fairly recently - the feathers were certainly appropriate for 
aerodynamic force generation, the hindlimbs were sufficient for a 
leaping launch, and the flight muscle fraction would have been just 
within the limits required to sustain some degree of flapping flight - 
but my work on structural mechanics, and those of Scott Hartman on the 
inboard wing, call some of the prior assumptions into question.

> > Okay, very funny :)  Seriously, though, there's a lot to this 
> > question of importance: it includes launch, power output, flapping 
> > kinematic, and landing dynamics.
>
> Seriously though, these questions are equally as valid for all 
> flapping flyers, not just Archie.

True.


Cheers,

--Mike


Michael Habib, M.S.
PhD. Candidate
Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
1830 E. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21205
(443) 280 0181
habib@jhmi.edu