Monday, October 21, 2024

flapping pterosaurs

Today's issue of Current Biology is a special theme issue on physics and biology, so there's lots of exciting stuff there from this particular interdisciplinary intersection. My contribution looks at the biomechanics of animals of the deep past, including one of the first species to crawl around on the sea floor as well as the very impressive pterosaurs, which were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight. As some pterosaurs grew to sizes much larger than today's biggest flying birds, researchers have some explaining to do here.

Modelling moves

Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 20, 21 October 2024, Pages R947-R950

Restricted access to full text and PDF download
(NB it appears to be open access right now, possibly because of the special section, and possibly time limited, but in any case it will become open access one year after publication)

Magic link for free access
(first seven weeks only)

See also my new Mastodon thread where I will highlight all this year's CB features.

Last year's thread is here .

Investigations of the bone structure of different pterosaur species suggest some evolved to meet the mechanical demands of soaring flight, whereas others were optimised for flapping. (Image: © Terryl Whitlatch.)

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