Prehistoric Winged Reptiles 'Pole-Vaulted' Into Flight

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2010) — Controversial claims that enormous prehistoric winged beasts could not fly have been refuted by the most comprehensive study to date which asserts that giant pterosaurs were skilled in flight.

The study, by Dr. Mark Witton from the University of Portsmouth in the UK and Dr Michael Habib from Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA, contradicts recent assertions that the creatures were flightless and explains how they took to the air.

They state that the giant reptiles took off by using all four of their limbs and effectively 'pole-vaulting' over their wings using their leg muscles and pushing from the ground using their powerful arm muscles. Once airborne they could fly huge distances and even cross continents. Their research is published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.

The debate about whether extinct giant pterosaurs, the largest of which were the height of giraffes, could fly has divided palaeontologists in recent years. Previous suggestions that they were flightless were based on assumptions that they were too heavy or because they would have taken off like birds, by running or leaping into their air using just their hind limbs.


Image by Dr Mark Witton of 'Pteranodon, a pterosaur with a 7 m wingspan, mid launch. Note that the legs have already cleared the ground and the arms are being used to push the animal into the air.' (Credit: Dr Mark Witton)

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101115074047.htm

[OKNancy]

1. If you scroll to the bottom of the article there is a video

that really explains how they think it was done. Fascinating.