Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs
The flight ability of animals is restricted by the scaling effects imposed by physical and physiological factors. In comparisons of the power available from muscle and the mechanical power required to fly, it is predicted that the margin between the powers should decrease with body size and that fly...
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ftciteseerx:oai:CiteSeerX.psu:10.1.1.571.2005 2023-05-15T18:43:03+02:00 Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs Katsufumi Sato Kentaro Q. Sakamoto Yutaka Watanuki Akinori Takahashi Nobuhiro Katsumata Charles-andre ́ Bost Henri Weimerskirch The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives application/pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.571.2005 http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/publipdf/2009/SPONE4_2009.pdf en eng http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.571.2005 http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/publipdf/2009/SPONE4_2009.pdf Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/publipdf/2009/SPONE4_2009.pdf text ftciteseerx 2016-01-08T12:32:12Z The flight ability of animals is restricted by the scaling effects imposed by physical and physiological factors. In comparisons of the power available from muscle and the mechanical power required to fly, it is predicted that the margin between the powers should decrease with body size and that flying animals have a maximum body size. However, predicting the absolute value of this upper limit has proven difficult because wing morphology and flight styles varies among species. Albatrosses and petrels have long, narrow, aerodynamically efficient wings and are considered soaring birds. Here, using animal-borne accelerometers, we show that soaring seabirds have two modes of flapping frequencies under natural conditions: vigorous flapping during takeoff and sporadic flapping during cruising flight. In these species, high and low flapping frequencies were found to scale with body mass (mass20.30 and mass20.18) in a manner similar to the predictions from biomechanical flight models (mass21/3 and mass21/6). These scaling relationships predicted that the maximum limits on the body size of soaring animals are a body mass of 41 kg and a wingspan of 5.1 m. Albatross-like animals larger than the limit will not be able to flap fast enough to stay aloft under unfavourable wind conditions. Our result therefore casts doubt on the flying ability of large, extinct pterosaurs. The largest extant soarer, the wandering albatross, weighs about 12 kg, which might be a pragmatic limit to maintain a safety margin for sustainable flight and to survive in a variable Text Wandering Albatross Unknown |
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The flight ability of animals is restricted by the scaling effects imposed by physical and physiological factors. In comparisons of the power available from muscle and the mechanical power required to fly, it is predicted that the margin between the powers should decrease with body size and that flying animals have a maximum body size. However, predicting the absolute value of this upper limit has proven difficult because wing morphology and flight styles varies among species. Albatrosses and petrels have long, narrow, aerodynamically efficient wings and are considered soaring birds. Here, using animal-borne accelerometers, we show that soaring seabirds have two modes of flapping frequencies under natural conditions: vigorous flapping during takeoff and sporadic flapping during cruising flight. In these species, high and low flapping frequencies were found to scale with body mass (mass20.30 and mass20.18) in a manner similar to the predictions from biomechanical flight models (mass21/3 and mass21/6). These scaling relationships predicted that the maximum limits on the body size of soaring animals are a body mass of 41 kg and a wingspan of 5.1 m. Albatross-like animals larger than the limit will not be able to flap fast enough to stay aloft under unfavourable wind conditions. Our result therefore casts doubt on the flying ability of large, extinct pterosaurs. The largest extant soarer, the wandering albatross, weighs about 12 kg, which might be a pragmatic limit to maintain a safety margin for sustainable flight and to survive in a variable |
author2 |
The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives |
format |
Text |
author |
Katsufumi Sato Kentaro Q. Sakamoto Yutaka Watanuki Akinori Takahashi Nobuhiro Katsumata Charles-andre ́ Bost Henri Weimerskirch |
spellingShingle |
Katsufumi Sato Kentaro Q. Sakamoto Yutaka Watanuki Akinori Takahashi Nobuhiro Katsumata Charles-andre ́ Bost Henri Weimerskirch Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs |
author_facet |
Katsufumi Sato Kentaro Q. Sakamoto Yutaka Watanuki Akinori Takahashi Nobuhiro Katsumata Charles-andre ́ Bost Henri Weimerskirch |
author_sort |
Katsufumi Sato |
title |
Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs |
title_short |
Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs |
title_full |
Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs |
title_fullStr |
Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs |
title_full_unstemmed |
Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs |
title_sort |
scaling of soaring seabirds and implications for flight abilities of giant pterosaurs |
url |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.571.2005 http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/publipdf/2009/SPONE4_2009.pdf |
genre |
Wandering Albatross |
genre_facet |
Wandering Albatross |
op_source |
http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/publipdf/2009/SPONE4_2009.pdf |
op_relation |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.571.2005 http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/publipdf/2009/SPONE4_2009.pdf |
op_rights |
Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. |
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1766232835484549120 |