Archaeologica.org

Runway found for flying reptiles
By Sudeep Chand
Science reporter, BBC News

An ancient runway for flying reptiles called pterosaurs has been found in France, say researchers writing in a Royal Society journal.
Led by Jean-Michel Mazin, the international team found a 150 million year-old landing strip in Crayssac in South West France.
The "trackway" shows how the reptile landed feet first, then stuttered before walking on all fours. [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8209505.stm

OK

I need PICs of the footprints showing how the stride reduced with the speed until they were walking.

What is the prevailing wind direction?

You should also have evidence of the opposite transition, the strides getting longer as they ran into the wind for takeoff.

150 million years?

The "trackway" shows how the reptile landed feet first,

For the life of me, I can't imagine any other way to land. Landing head-first would seem to be more of a "crash."

Minimalist wrote:

The "trackway" shows how the reptile landed feet first,

For the life of me, I can't imagine any other way to land. Landing head-first would seem to be more of a "crash."

That's exactly how Albatrosses 'land' They suck at it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zGEbVxr0mk

No wonder the damn things are almost extinct.

Minimalist wrote:No wonder the damn things are almost extinct.

No, that's because of the "long-liners". Fishing boats that trawl up to 100 miles of line with thousands of baited hooks behind them for tuna and such. But the Albatrosses see that bait too, dive, and try to snap it up. Getting killed by the thousands in the process.

My favourite subject!
I argued this point some years ago with the BBC. If their weight was as suggested, with the wing area that was suggested, getting off the deck would have been as simple as turning into the wind and spreading their wings, they would have have gone up like a kite!
Now getting down might have been somewhat more challenging though.

Roy.

Well they did seem to be shaped for dive bombing, perhaps landing was something as simple as; 1) fold up your wings and point your nose to the ground and 2) spread you wings when you get close to slow you down.

Now getting down might have been somewhat more challenging though.

Any landing you walk away from is a good landing.

Most large birds stall onto the ground and thus have no need for a 'landing strip', but conversly have to 'paddle' to get upto flying speed.
Birds are relatively inefficient flying machines, but if Dactyls were like Bats and had control over the angle of attack, wing camber, wing planform and variable geometry, they would have been the most efficient flyers next to Dragon Flies.
What has annoyed me over the years that I have been arguing this is the fact that all this should have been as obvious to the experts as to me, the difference has been that those who excavated the fossils never bothered to talk to aeronautical engineers.
The illustrations of the Dactyl wings when folded could have made them very unstable on the ground in a cross wind though.

Roy.

Digit wrote: The illustrations of the Dactyl wings when folded could have made them very unstable on the ground in a cross wind though.

What illustrations, Roy?

Various publications and TV programmes have shown the wing folding mechanism RS. Unfortunately I can't post any details at this time as I am on a borrowed PC, my own having commited suicide some weeks ago.
Till I get it back all my files etc are lost to me, but the illustrations show that, if correct, their wings would have have folded in such a manner that they stuck upwards like a spinaker sail so thay they walked sort of on their elbows.
They were dedicated flying machines.

Roy.

Digit wrote:Various publications and TV programmes have shown the wing folding mechanism RS.

Ah, that wing folding mechanism. Afaic that's a wingfolding mechanism, not necessarily the wingfolding mechanism.

the illustrations show that, if correct, their wings would have have folded in such a manner that they stuck upwards like a spinaker sail so thay they walked sort of on their elbows.

It's a funny sight, though, give you that. Those Pterodactyls on the ground with those great flapping sails, bumbling along as if on stilts. I had assumed that, in that concept, they were walking on their wrists, though.

They were dedicated flying machines.

They indeed seem to have been.