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Soaring styles of extinct giant birds and pterosaurs

View ORCID ProfileYusuke Goto, View ORCID ProfileKen Yoda, View ORCID ProfileHenri Weimerskirch, View ORCID ProfileKatsufumi Sato
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.31.354605
Yusuke Goto
1Centre d’Etudes Biologiques Chizé, CNRS – Université de la Rochelle, 79360 Villiers En Bois, France
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  • For correspondence: goto924@gmail.com
Ken Yoda
2Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Furo, Chikusa, Nagoya, Japan
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Henri Weimerskirch
1Centre d’Etudes Biologiques Chizé, CNRS – Université de la Rochelle, 79360 Villiers En Bois, France
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Katsufumi Sato
3Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Chiba, Japan
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Summary

The largest extinct volant birds (Pelagornis sandersi and Argentavis magnificens) and pterosaurs (Pteranodon and Quetzalcoatlus) are thought to have used wind-dependent soaring flight, similar to modern large birds. There are two types of soaring: thermal soaring, used by condors and frigatebirds, which involves the use of updrafts to ascend and then glide horizontally over the land or the sea; and dynamic soaring, used by albatrosses, which involves the use of wind speed differences with height above the sea surface. Previous studies have suggested that Pelagornis sandersi used dynamic soaring, while Argenthavis magnificens, Pteranodon, and Quetzalcoatlus used thermal soaring. However, the performance and wind speed requirements of dynamic and thermal soaring for these species have not yet been quantified comprehensively. We quantified these values using aerodynamic models and compared them with that of extant birds. For dynamic soaring, we quantified maximum flight speeds and maximum upwind flight speeds. For thermal soaring, we quantified the animal’s sinking speed circling at a given radius and how far it could glide losing a given height. Our results confirmed those from previous studies that Pteranodon and Argentavis magnificens used thermal soaring. Conversely, the results for Pelagornis sandersi and Quetzalcoatlus were contrary to those from previous studies. Pelagornis sandersi used thermal soaring, and Quetzalcoatlus had a poor ability both in dynamic and thermal soaring. Our results demonstrate the need for comprehensive assessments of performance and required wind conditions when estimating soaring styles of extinct flying species.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • The lines of the glider were added to Fig.5. A bug was found in the code to calculate Fig.5B, which did not take into account the inequality that the lift coefficient does not exceed the maximum lift coefficient, and this was corrected. In addition, the discussion has been enriched.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted December 24, 2020.
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Soaring styles of extinct giant birds and pterosaurs
Yusuke Goto, Ken Yoda, Henri Weimerskirch, Katsufumi Sato
bioRxiv 2020.10.31.354605; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.31.354605
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Soaring styles of extinct giant birds and pterosaurs
Yusuke Goto, Ken Yoda, Henri Weimerskirch, Katsufumi Sato
bioRxiv 2020.10.31.354605; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.31.354605

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