Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Flying Dino Too Weak to Lift Off?
Discovery News ^ | Thursday, November 8, 2012 | Larry O'Hanlon

Posted on 11/10/2012 11:58:31 AM PST by SunkenCiv

A new analysis of the largest of pterodactyls suggests they were too big and their muscles too weak to vault into the air and fly. Instead, they were right at the upper limit of animal flight and needed a hill or stiff breeze so they could soar like hang gliders.

The new analysis was done on the enormous pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus from Late Cretaceous rocks of Big Bend, Texas. Quetzalcoatlus had a wingspan of about 35 feet (10.6 meters), or about the wingspan of a F-16 fighter. It was among the last pterodactyls to look down on dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

The new study, presented on Nov. 7 at the meeting of the Geological Society of America in Charlotte, N.C., puts the mass of the flying reptile at around 155 pounds (70 kilograms). That's near the upper limit of what flesh and bone can support in flight, according to paleontologist Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University in Lubbock...

"There's no way this animal could take off from the ground," said Chatterjee of the quad launch, especially of a more massive animal. "There is no way it could fly."

At least not by jumping directly into the air and taking flight, he said. As for the greater weight suggested by others, that doesn't work in his model either. Despite the fact that Quetzalcoatlus was as large as a giraffe, it could not have weighed more than a medium-sized adult human, he said...

Other researchers, however, are sticking to their quad launch hypothesis, partly because they can't see how Quetzalcoatlus could weigh as little as 70 kilograms.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: dinosaur; dinosaurs; godsgravesglyphs; paleontology; pterodactyl
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last
Quetzalcoatlus demonstrates the so-called "quad launch" in this illustration. [Mark Witton]

Quetzalcoatlus demonstrates the so-called quad launch in this illustration. [Mark Witton]

1 posted on 11/10/2012 11:58:36 AM PST by SunkenCiv
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]


Dragon-Like, Feathered Dinosaur Was Ace Flyer -- Amanda Fiegl -- National Geographic News -- November 5, 2012 -- Why would a dinosaur with a body built for running have four wings and a long, feathered tail -- and how did it use them? Paleontologists have long puzzled over the dragon-like anatomy of the tiny, carnivorous dinosaur called Microraptor that hunted in the forests of China 130 million years ago. Finally, anatomists think they've found an answer: This crow-size dromaeosaur was a master of control. Whether it was gliding or flapping through the air, its hind wings would have let it turn on a dime. "In terms of aerodynamics, the hind wings would have increased its rate of turn by 33 to 50 percent, compared to using only the front wings," said Michael Habib of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, who co-presented the research at an annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Raleigh, North Carolina, last month.
Microraptor's aerodynamic wings are seen in an artist's reconstruction. [Illustration courtesy David Krentz]

Dragon-Like, Feathered Dinosaur Was Ace Flyer

2 posted on 11/10/2012 12:00:47 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

bump

my nephew just brought home a really big book of dee-nosaurs, I’m going to take a peek for the Quezo-chezy coated one


3 posted on 11/10/2012 12:01:06 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Renfield; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks Renfield, for both stories.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


4 posted on 11/10/2012 12:01:40 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Renfield; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks Renfield, for both stories.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


5 posted on 11/10/2012 12:02:43 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Bees can’t fly either.


6 posted on 11/10/2012 12:02:54 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the psychopath.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Bumblebees can’t fly either.


7 posted on 11/10/2012 12:04:39 PM PST by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

I wonder if they are assuming 14.7 psi as one atmosphere?

I’m also wondering what percentage of the atmosphere and hydrosphere would be permanently blasted into space if you abruptly opened a 120 mile wide crater down to magma at a shallow ocean margin?

Seems to me that would create a superheated seawater steam jet that would rocket into space for days if not weeks.

The net pressure and available atmospheric oxygen before Chicxulub might well have been significantly higher.


8 posted on 11/10/2012 12:17:07 PM PST by null and void (The One can steal an election, but no one can steal our country.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

I’ve heard that one reason dinosaurs could be of such a large size is that there used to be more oxygen in the atmosphere. I wonder if it is known whether there was also higher surface air pressure.


9 posted on 11/10/2012 12:18:41 PM PST by wideminded
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

I fully understand. I have the same problem.


10 posted on 11/10/2012 12:24:02 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wideminded

One of the aspects of climbing Mt.Everest is that it requires oxygen tanks. Then, once at the top, climbers look up and wonder how flocks of birds can fly past at that altitude.

How do birds do that, as flying requires so much energy and thus oxygen?

It is because they are descended from dinosaurs, an animal that evolved at the end of the Permian extinction when there had been an oxygen collapse.

Birds, and dinosaurs, have a physiology that traps air inside their bodies.


11 posted on 11/10/2012 12:28:38 PM PST by SatinDoll (NATURAL BORN CITZEN: BORN IN THE USA OF CITIZEN PARENTS.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv; GeronL; null and void

"I don't unnerstand why this F***ing thing won't fly."

12 posted on 11/10/2012 12:29:59 PM PST by bigheadfred
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Canadian geese are falling all over my front lawn.


13 posted on 11/10/2012 12:32:38 PM PST by bunkerhill7 (yup)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bigheadfred

lol

RINO too weak to lift off


14 posted on 11/10/2012 12:37:00 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

And not a single word about the thicker, more dense air that existed during the epochs of the dinosaurs.

Denser air would displace more weight given the same area. It would apply more upward pressure for any wing area and velocity.

I see nothing mentioned that the air was much more dense in the hotter climates when these animals flew.

The analysis appears flawed.


15 posted on 11/10/2012 1:28:11 PM PST by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (Pray to God. Apologize to your children. America is doomed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bigheadfred

LOL


16 posted on 11/10/2012 1:34:49 PM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free

“And not a single word about the thicker, more dense air that existed during the epochs of the dinosaurs.”

Really? I never heard of this before. That’s pretty interesting.


17 posted on 11/10/2012 1:44:51 PM PST by Beowulf9
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: SatinDoll
Birds, and dinosaurs, have a physiology that traps air inside their bodies.

Apparently peeple fall into that category. They have a physiology that traps air inside their heads.

18 posted on 11/10/2012 1:45:49 PM PST by bigheadfred
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Maybe it was just windier at the time.


19 posted on 11/10/2012 1:53:13 PM PST by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv


20 posted on 11/10/2012 2:02:34 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson