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According to Johns Hopkins doctoral student Michael Habib, these dragon-like creatures—the largest of which may have weighed well over 500 pounds—had the power to take off from flat ground. Habib, who used to study bird flight, says pterosaurs’ wing bones were too massive for them to have simply been frail gliders. But beefy wings make sense if they flew by first tipping forward off comparatively spindly back legs, then using their front limbs to explosively leapfrog into the air. If that theory takes wing, pterosaurs could gain a muscular new profile in Mesozoic history. —Chris Carroll
WINGING IT: A pterosaur leaned forward on its wings and, with a catapult-like action, hurtled off the ground. Once aloft, it flapped away, according to a new theory.
Art: Raul Martin (top); Hiram Henriquez, NG Staff (bottom)
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Comments
Aug 17, 2009 3PM #
Fascinating and very clear explanation. Unfortunately, the wing finger never makes an impression in pterosaur tracks. The three small fingers do. Without pressure placed on the wing finger joint, does this hypothesis still work? In Anhanguera the situation is as the animation shows due to proportional differences. So the question is: would Anhanguera have invented this style of take-off if other pterosaurs did not employ it?
There are also questions about recoil. I think the animator held back the recoil of the wing finger to avoid having it slam into the ground. The only real recoil is at the elbow.
Aug 17, 2009 3PM #
@David Peters: All pterodactyloids had very strong front limbs and fairly weak hindlimbs (compared to birds at least); if most pterosaurs didn't used the wings and the hindlimbs would even break due to the effort taken then how would they take off?
Aug 17, 2009 3PM #
Instead of the explosive leap, could it have picked up speed gradually by running and then leaping (using the knuckle joint as a 'foot')?
Aug 17, 2009 3PM #
Re. my recent comment:
Sorry - just checked Johns Hopkins magazine that says 'Dave Burnham, a paleontologist at the University of Kansas, recalls a set of pterosaur tracks recovered in France that appear to support a two-legged running launch, but says these could also be the fossil record of a pterosaur's landing.'
This makes my comment redundant.
Aug 17, 2009 3PM #
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.
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