Re: How bats fly...

[Mike Habib <habib@jhmi.edu>]

It's a "third way", essentially.  Of course, it depends a bit on how we look at 
it - the wakes from bats are rather more complicated, but at the same time, 
there are some fundamentals that they share with birds - and pterosaurs would 
share these, too.  So to say that bats fly differently from birds could be 
either very true or highly inaccurate, depending on how one looks at it (as a 
side note, I know Sharon Swartz pretty well, and have spent some time in her 
lab - it's a fantastic setup and their work is really stellar.  For those 
interested in bat flight, I highly recommend her papers, along with those of 
recent Swartz postdoc Dan Riskin, who is exceptionally brilliant).

Cheers,

--Mike H.  


On Oct 13, 2010, at 1:43 AM, GUY LEAHY wrote:

> 
> 
> Very differently from birds, according to this research:
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/science/12obbat.html?ref=science
> 
> Based on this, would pterosaur flight be considered closer to birds, bats, or 
> would pterosaurs represent a "third way" to achieve powered flight?
> 
> Guy Leahy                                       

Michael Habib
Assistant Professor of Biology
Chatham University
Woodland Road, Pittsburgh PA  15232
Buhl Hall, Room 226A
mhabib@chatham.edu
(443) 280-0181