rekordy: Flying and gliding animals

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

A number of animals are capable of aerial locomotion, either by active flight, passive gliding or, in rare occasions, ballooning, also known as kiting. Such animals typically have appendages that interact with air to generate lift in order to overcome the weight of their own body and any payload they are carrying (e.g. food, prey or nesting materials). The majority of flying and glide animals are terrestrial, although species from one extant taxon, the flying fish, are aquatic. The ability to fly or glide has appeared via convergent evolution many times throughout the history of life. Wing-powered flight has evolved prominently in at least four terrestrial clades: pterygote insects, pterosa…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 92

Comparative gliding performance of Anolis lizards among three Caribbean ecomorphs.. Anole lizards (genus Anolis) have repeatedly and independently occupied arboreal niches, and in parallel have evolved associated morphologies and locomotor behaviors. In arboreal vertebrates more generally, parachuting and gliding have frequently evolved in response to selective pressure for targeting and controlled landings during either falls or intentional jumps. Here we describe morphological features and aerial performance among five anole species representing the trunk-ground, trunk-crown, and crown giant ecomorphs. Aerial behavior within a vertical wind tunnel was used to evaluate gliding performance,…

Evidence: 49 • authority: 72

Certain species of fish and birds are able to locomote in both air and water, two fluid media with very different properties. A fluid is a particular phase of matter that deforms under shear stresses and includes any type of liquid or gas. Because fluids are easily deformable and move in response to applied forces, efficiently locomoting in a fluid medium presents unique challenges. Specific morphological characteristics are therefore required in animal species that primarily depend on fluidic locomotion. Because the properties of air and water are so different, swimming and flying have very disparate morphological requirements. As a result, despite the large diversity of animals that are c…

Evidence: 49 • authority: 72

Various marine animals are capable of aerial locomotion, i.e., jumping out of the water and moving through air. Some possible reasons for this behavior are hunting, escaping from predators, and saving energy for swimming or breathing. Some of the jumping behaviors initiate gliding and taxiing in air, while some of them end up falling back to water.

Evidence: 49 • authority: 72

In ethology, animal locomotion is any of a variety of methods that animals use to move from one place to another. Some modes of locomotion are (initially) self-propelled, e.g., running, swimming, jumping, flying, hopping, soaring and gliding. Many animal species depend on their environment for transportation, a type of mobility called passive locomotion, e.g., sailing (some jellyfish), kiting (spiders), rolling (some beetles and spiders) or riding other animals (phoresis). Animals move for a variety of reasons, such as to find food, a mate, a suitable microhabitat, or to escape predators. For many animals, the ability to move is essential for survival and, as a result, natural selection has…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 88

Aerodynamics from Cursorial Running to Aerial Gliding for Avian Flight Evolution. Among the different models that have been proposed to explain the origin of avian flightfrom terrestrial predators, the cursorial and arboreal hypotheses remain the most discussed.However, the fossil data at hand show that, taken separately, both theories have significantlimitations in explaining the origin of flight in bird lineage. Here, we describe an aerodynamicsprinciple that fills in the gaps between those apparently contradictory models. The upslope wind inmountain areas and strong wind in plains provided the meteorological conditions allowingfeathered paravians to glide. The results suggest that smalle…

Evidence: 37 • authority: 92

Allometric patterns in Rhamphorhynchus muensteri and their role in the paleoecology, life habits, and taxonomic framework of pterosaurs.. Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to achieve powered flight, a result of various unique anatomical adaptations, and significant morphological diversity throughout their evolutionary history. Although the pterosaurs body structure was specialized for powered flight, the clade exhibited great disparity from its origins, with later evolution giving rise to multiple phylogenetic lineages and a wide range of body sizes, from small forms such as Anurognathus ammoni to truly giant species like Quetzalcoatlus northropi. This variation led to distinct flight s…

Evidence: 37 • authority: 92

The squirrel barrier concept and its bearing on the evolution of aerial mammals.. Three vertebrate lineages conquered powered fight in different epochs of the Phanerozoic: pterosaurs, dinosaurs (birds) and mammals (bats). The evolutionary mechanisms proposed for the demanding transition to powered flight have been contentious. For mammals, recent evidence suggests that the Darwinian hypothesis of a gliding transition is supported, based on aerodynamic and paleo-atmosphere reconstructions. However, it is surprising that the many (at least 12) confirmed, independent lineages of gliding mammals that existed since the Jurassic to the present never evolved powered flight. To explain this, Pennyc…

Evidence: 37 • authority: 72

This is a list of the average and fastest flight speeds achieved by birds. A bird's velocity is necessarily variable; a hunting bird will reach much greater speeds while diving to catch prey than when flying horizontally. The bird that can achieve the greatest speed is the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), able to exceed 320 km/h (200 mph) in its dives. A close relative of the common swift, the white-throated needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus), is commonly reported as the fastest bird in level flight with a reported top speed of 169 km/h (105 mph). This record remains unconfirmed as the measurement methods have never been published or verified. The record for the fastest confirmed level…

Evidence: 37 • authority: 80

Intermittent Gliding Flight Control Design and Verification of a Morphing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Evidence: 37 • authority: 80

Energetically Optimal Flight Trajectories for Short Range Gliding Animals

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis) is a large bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. The steppe eagle's well-feathered legs illustrate it to be a member of the subfamily Aquilinae, also known as the "Booted eagles". This species was once considered to be closely related to the sedentary tawny eagle (Aquila rapax) and the two forms have previously been treated as conspecific. They were split based on pronounced differences in morphology and anatomy; two molecular studies, each based on a very small number of genes, indicate that the species are distinct but disagree over how closely related they are. The Steppe eagle is in many ways a peculiar species of eagl…