Lift devices in the flight of Archaeopteryx
- Meseguer, José 1
- Chiappe, Luis M 2
- Sanz, José L 3
- Ortega, Francisco 4
- Sanz-Andrés, Ángel 1
- Pérez-Grande, Isabel 1
- Franchini, Sebastián 1
- 1 Instituto Universitario Ignacio Da Riva, Universidadd Politécnica de Madrid
- 2 Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles Country
- 3 Unidad de Paleontología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
- 4 Departamento de Físicca Matemática y de Fluidos, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
ISSN: 2255-0550
Ano de publicación: 2012
Título do exemplar: SPANISH JOURNAL OF PALAEONTOLOGY
Volume: 27
Número: 2
Páxinas: 125-130
Tipo: Artigo
Outras publicacións en: Spanish journal of palaeontology
Resumo
Archaeopteryx has played a central role in the debates on the origins of avian (and dinosaurian) flight, even though as a flier it probably represents a relatively late stage in the beginnings of flight. We report on aerodynamic tests using a life-sized model of Archaeopteryx performing in a low turbulence wind tunnel. Our results indicate that tail deflection significantly decreased take-off velocity and power consumption, and that the first manual digit could have functioned as the structural precursor of the alula. Such results demonstrate that Archaeopteryx had already evolved high-lift devices, which are functional analogues of those present in today’s birds
Información de financiamento
This work has been supported by funds from Spanish Ministerio de Educaci?n y Ciencia, DGICYT (project CGL2005-05614).Financiadores
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- CGL2005-05614
- Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte Spain