[The flight of pterosaurs].

Abstract

There are known three groups of vertebrates, representatives of which are gifted in active flight, namely birds, bats, and pterosaurs. Among them, the group biologists and engineers are most interested in is birds. In essence, the flight of birds is considered as a basic type, with which other groups are to be compared when studying the flight of vertebrates or trying to reconstruct it. However, while aerodynamic principles are common for all groups due to environmental uniformity, biomechanical means of flying turn out to be dependent on the wing morphological features that evolved within a specific group. At that, as for birds and bats, there is a possibility for making direct observations of the flight and comparisons between presumable and actual states, while for pterosaurs such a possibility is lacking. So, the principles of pterosaurs' flight have to be reconstructed using only paleontological data on their wing morphology and evolution.