"What’s Wrong With the Flying Pterosaurs in Jurassic World?" Topic

"I'm not a paleontologist, that should be obvious. However, these flying pterosaurs (they are not dinosaurs) are not just bigger versions of your backyard birds. No, they are huge. If there is one thing I hope you would learn from reading this blog it would be that big things are not the same thing as small things. We call this the physics of scale.

Although flying is complicated, think of a bird flying at a constant speed. In order to maintain a constant altitude, the lift generated by the wings must be equal to the weight of the bird. What does the lift depend on? Moving faster generates more lift, but so does a larger surface area. Let's take a generic bird and scale it up…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

It's a good article: scientific and clear, and makes the math seem simple.

But especially I love the deadpan conclusion:

In conclusion, I think that the flying animals in Jurassic World are not real and instead the producers used some type of computer generated graphics to depict the motion of the pterosaurs.

Good points in the article but it is not a fair comparison.

Birds and Pterosaurs are very different from each other and therefore they are not comparing like with like.

Sure they both fly and have hollow bones. However it is a bit like comparing a microlight with a small Cessna. As you scale up a pterosaur the difference in weight will become more apparent as they are not nearly as robust (solidly built) as birds.

Birds are heavier for their size when compared with Pterosaurs. That means they need to have bigger muscles to get off the ground. Pterosaurs are lighter requiring smaller muscles to take-off.

Don't get me wrong the Jurassic World Pteranodons are a bit naff and wouldn't be able to pick people off the ground; but it's only a movie, not a Natural History documentary by Sir David Attenborough.

Oliver

It's only a movie…. it's only a movie.

Good article, but, yeah, it's only a movie. (And not as good as JP1, IMHO.) The Dino action is excellent, but the story is lacking. Divorcing parents! Disobedient kids! Gratuitous love story (with no chemistry between the leads)!

If you need some handwavium, just assume they they gene-spliced the pteros to be stronger for some reason.

Unfortunatley I have built up a tolerance to handwavium.

Pterosaurs lifting and tossing people? Someone watched too much 1,000,000 Years BC. And why do the pterosaurs see humans as potential food? We are far too large to be usual prey size.

The movie had one too many cliches for me.

yes, the pterodons were fake in the film.

Gasp!

"Well Bob, they were a bit trite and in no way better than 'The Flying Wallendas', who are an infinitely better act and have appeared world wide too. Don't you agree El Barto?"
8-D

Fake???!!! They grew them right there in the lab. Didn't you WATCH the movie.

I was explaining my interest in the "Jurassic" franchise to my kids… basically, we have dinosaurs chasing and eating people. Supposedly, those people have names and pesonalities, but I try not to let anything distract me from the plot, which is dionsaurs chasing and eating people. I do not see the dinosaurs as the villains, I see the people as dino-snacks. For the purposes of this discussion, any prehistoric critter counts as a dinosaur.

Glad you enjoyed the article boys!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I saw the question asked "What elements do you consider essential for a Jurrasic Park movie?" That's an easy one. Dinos eating people! Dinos fighting with other dinos and dinos eating dinos are bonus points.

But mostly it's watching dinosaurs eat tasty people.

Picking holes in the science is just a bonus.

In conclusion, I think that the flying animals in Jurassic World are not real and instead the producers used some type of computer generated graphics to depict the motion of the pterosaurs.

To be fair, I've read that real pterosaurs are deucedly difficult to train, and smell terrible. These days, with suitable CGI available, nobody uses the real thing.

Doug

On the other hand according to a paleontologist I was listening to the other day there was definitly a type of flyig dino that could have taken a baby brontosaurus for dinner (note we dont know if it actually did, just that it was capabale of it) which I gather were rather large…

There were Pterosaururs approaching fighter jets in size. Those might have been able to toss people about. They weren't the ones in the movie though.

But, the important question is who makes the best rules for Pterosaururs gone wild?

I saw "Jurassic World' with my amazing and talented wife today. It did not disappoint. The essential plot of dinosaurs eating dino-snacks was well executed. I particularly enjoyed how the dino-snacks were served in a variety of packages, from lunch boxes to vending machine bubbles. There were quite a few dino-snack left uneaten, so plenty of room for a sequel.

Related: weaponized dinosaurs could lead to a sequel called "Jurassic War." Remember, you saw it here first.