Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Chatterjee S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1906724 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Chatterjee Sankar S Templin R Jack RJ Campbell Kenneth E KE
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20070703 30
We calculate the flight performance of the gigantic volant bird Argentavis magnificens from the upper Miocene ( approximately 6 million years ago) of Argentina using a computer simulation model. Argentavis was probably too large (mass approximately 70 kg) to be capable of continuous flapping flight or standing takeoff under its own muscle power. Like extant condors and vultures, Argentavis would have extracted energy from the atmosphere for flight, relying on thermals present on the Argentinean ...[more]