caa a22 4500 386384762 CHVBK 20180307112055.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130s1989 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0263593300028753 doi S0263593300028753 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0263593300028753 Rayner Jeremy M. V. Department of Zoology, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, U.K. Mechanics and physiology of flight in fossil vertebrates [Elektronische Daten] [Jeremy M. V. Rayner] Flight—defined as the ability to produce useful aerodynamic forces by flapping wings—is one of the most demanding adaptations in vertebrates. The mechanical problems of flight ensure considerable external morphological homogeneity and behavioural similarity in extant fliers. Observations of the vortex wakes and wingbeat geometry of modern birds and bats confirm that the two groups are mechanically very similar, despite differences in phylogeny, anatomy and physiology. With this background it is possible to attack two problems: the evolution of flight in vertebrates, and the flight performance of extinct animals such as pterosaurs and Archaeopteryx. The origin of flight has been surrounded by considerable controversy, due in part to terminological inconsistencies, in part to phylogenetic uncertainty over the relationships of birds, bats and pterosaurs, in part to disagreement over the interpretation of the available fossil evidence, and in part to argument over the relative importance of morphological, mechanical and ecological specialisations. The mechanical changes needed in the course of the evolution of flight favour a gliding origin of tetrapod flight, and on mechanical and ecological grounds the alternative cursorial hypothesis may be discounted. This argument is particularly strong in bats, but has been thought to be weaker in birds owing to apparent inconsistencies with the fossil evidence. However, fossils of the Jurassic theropod dinosaur Archaeopteryx also support a gliding origin for flight, and suggest that this animal was adapted for flapping flight at moderately high speeds associated with gliding; it could fly less well at the slow speeds which would have been required for incipient flight in a running cursor, and at which the wingbeat is aerodynamically and kinematically considerably more complex. Slow flight in birds and bats is the more derived condition, and vertebrate flapping flight apparently evolved through a gliding stage. The pterosaurs have become the subject of much controversy over the nature of their stance, the wing surface, and the degree of involvement of the leg in the wing membrane. Reconstruction of their wings indicates proficient flying animals, and comparison with birds suggests that most pterosaurs probably occupied marine or coastal/estuarine habitat. Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1989 aerodynamics nationallicence Archaeopteryx nationallicence bats nationallicence birds nationallicence evolution nationallicence palaeoecology nationallicence pterosaurs nationallicence Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences Royal Society of Edinburgh Scotland Foundation 80/3-4(1989), 311-320 0263-5933 80:3-4<311 1989 80 TRE https://doi.org/10.1017/S0263593300028753 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0263593300028753 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Rayner Jeremy M. V. Department of Zoology, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, U.K NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences Royal Society of Edinburgh Scotland Foundation 80/3-4(1989), 311-320 0263-5933 80:3-4<311 1989 80 TRE CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge