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New Research Shows Flying Dinosaurs Used ‘Flaps’

by Mike on October 14th, 2005

Pterosaurs, flying dinosaurs with up to 60-foot wingspans, likely used what are the equivalent of flaps on a modern airplane for take-off, landing and even in-flight stability.

A study of pterosaur fossils, which included aerodynamic analysis and serious time in a wind tunnel, showed that a long bone unique to the species must have pointed directly forward to support a membrane of skin that acted as a retractable flap in the front of the wings, changing the angle of attack and, thus, increasing lift.

Details of the study have been published in a report written by Matthew Wilkinson and Charles Ellington of Cambridge University, and David Unwin from the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, in the current issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

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