Were Pterosaurs Too Big To Fly?

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Not on a smaller Earth: http://oilismastery.blogspot.com/2008/10/were-pterosaurs-too-big-to-fly.html

 

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At one point aerodynamic models of bees came to the conclusion that bees could not fly, but clearly they could.

So all it means is that any model of how a pterosaur flew is incorrect.

 

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Not on an Earth where we don't know for a fact they flew anyway.

 

Weird looking creature isn't it. Imagine that thing way back when, I'll bet it lived high in the mountains and only glided from cliff to cliff.

 

I think that's a myth.

That's certainly more likely than OIM's idea!

 

No, it isn't

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Anyone that still takes OIM seriously has a serious problem.

 

It was a real unknown until fairly recently, but it was discovered that insects utilise the drag from stall vortices to increase the lift from their flapping wings;

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v384/n6610/abs/384626a0.html

 

True actually. At the time aerodynamics couldn't model supersonic flow, and also there was a misunderstanding as to how bees moved their wings. On the backstroke they 'clap' their wings together then pull hard down creating a low pressure zone above the bee. The bee's body is pulled into this zone, greatly increasing lifting area over what the wings can do.

 

Cite? Was there ever an "aerodynamic model of bees" that suggested they couldn't fly?

Or did someone perhaps take an aerodynamic model of fixed-wing aircraft and apply that to bees, then gleefully announce that "science says bees can't fly!"

Or is it just an old story that nobody ever bothered checking?

 

Hang gliders can hold a lot of weight in the air with good glide ratios even without power. The Earth's atmosphere has been denser in times past, too. I think that the method of propulsion when in flight is like snapping a tablecloth.

 

phlogistician
i love those assertions, there was one going around that kangroos couldnt be real because they couldnt eat enough in a day to alow them to bounce. Im still waiting for someone to tell the kangroos that

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IIRC it was a proof by contradiction that the proposed theories of flight at the time were wrong.

We notice: the Japanese calculation is for an animal that weighs too much, and the weight of the pterosaurs is unknown.

And not only thicker atmospheres (with more oxygen) but higher wind speeds are known from the past - median wind speeds of well over 100 kph are known for some regions, including large coastal regions over long times.

And many soaring birds do not flap much - albatrosses have been observed gliding on the updrafts from ocean waves, just a couple of feet off the water, for very long times without flapping at all. Human guided gliders launch off cliffs and hills and soar for many hours, landing at the same or higher altitudes than they started, routinely. They are bigger and almost certainly much heavier than pterosaurs.

 

This link is helpful: http://books.google.com/books?id=_DT38IYGVngC&printsec=frontcover

Also here: http://www.dinox.org/

And here: http://michaelnetzer.com/gu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=63

 

It had something to do with their wings producing negative lift

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I do believe Ice Age has outdone himself.

 

How confident are you in that recollection? And are you recalling an anecdote, or something more substantial?

Cite?

 

Oh come on. I'd have to look it up. If you're really interested you can do that yourself, right ?

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Sure, if I thought I wasn't wasting my time looking for a reference that doesn't exist.

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Ok lol
I'll look it up later today, if I don't forget.