Fossil-inspired flight: pterosaurs hold secrets to better aeronautical engineering

Pterosaurs were the largest animals ever to fly. They soared the skies for 160 million years - much longer than any species of modern bird. However, until now, these ancient flyers have largely been overlooked in the pursuit of bio-inspired flight technologies. In a review, published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution , Bristol researchers outline why and how the physiology of fossil flyers could provide ancient solutions to modern flight problems, such as aerial stability and the ability of drones to self-launch. "There's a lot of really cool stuff in the fossil record that goes unexplored because engineers generally don't look to paleontology when thinking about inspiration for flight," said first author Liz Martin-Silverstone , a post-doctoral researcher and paleontologist at the University of Bristol. "If we're only looking at modern animals for inspiration, we're really missing a large degree of the morphology out there and ignoring a lot of options that I think could be useful," said Dr Martin-Silverstone. Previously, engineers have largely focused on the physiology of modern birds and insects when designing aeronautic technology like drones and planes; they might not think to examine fossils which - by their nature - are often incomplete.