30 research outputs found
Paleobiology of titanosaurs: reproduction, development, histology, pneumaticity, locomotion and neuroanatomy from the South American fossil record
Fil: GarcĂa, Rodolfo A.. Instituto de InvestigaciĂłn en PaleobiologĂa y GeologĂa. Museo Provincial Carlos Ameghino. Cipolletti; ArgentinaFil: Salgado, Leonardo. Instituto de InvestigaciĂłn en PaleobiologĂa y GeologĂa. General Roca. RĂo Negro; ArgentinaFil: FernĂĄndez, Mariela. Inibioma-Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche. Bariloche. RĂo Negro; ArgentinaFil: Cerda, Ignacio A.. Instituto de InvestigaciĂłn en PaleobiologĂa y GeologĂa. Museo Provincial Carlos Ameghino. Cipolletti; ArgentinaFil: Carabajal, Ariana Paulina. Museo Carmen Funes. Plaza Huincul. NeuquĂ©n; ArgentinaFil: Otero, Alejandro. Museo de La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Coria, Rodolfo A.. Instituto de PaleobiologĂa y GeologĂa. Universidad Nacional de RĂo Negro. NeuquĂ©n; ArgentinaFil: Fiorelli, Lucas E.. Centro Regional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y Transferencia TecnolĂłgica. Anillaco. La Rioja; Argentin
Airplane Design and the Biomechanics of Flight â A More Completely Multi- Disciplinary Perspective
Aeronautics is usually presumed to have started as a formal engineering discipline somewhere in historical time between the mythological experiments of Daedalus and his ill-fated son, Icarus; and the dreams and schemes of Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. As reviewed in this paper, âaeronauticsâ has a far longer history, extending over a period of about 300 million years beginning with the evolution of the ability of insects to fly. With the advent of the success of the Wright brothers, technologists quickly turned their attention from the inspirations and lessons provided by natural models of flying machines to a more practical quest for increasingly dramatic improvements in speed, range and altitude performance far beyond the limits of what muscles and flapping wings could provide. Based on recent work done by the first author in support of the NASA/DARPA Morphing Aircraft Structures Program, a purpose of this paper is to demonstrate in broader terms some of the numerous, very rich sources of inspiration such multi-disciplinary explorations continue to offer both the engineering practitioner and educator
Dinosaur killer claws or climbing crampons?
Dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaurs possess a strongly recurved, hypertrophied and hyperextensible ungual claw on pedal digit II. This feature is usually suggested to have functioned as a device for disembowelling herbivorous dinosaurs during predation. However, modelling of dromaeosaurid hindlimb function using a robotic model and comparison of pedal ungual morphology with extant analogue taxa both indicate that this distinctive claw did not function as a slashing weapon, but may have acted as an aid to prey capture