bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.31.354605; this version posted November 17, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 1 2 Soaring styles of extinct giant birds and pterosaurs 3 4 5 Authors: 6 Yusuke Goto1*, Ken Yoda2, Henri Weimerskirch1, Katsufumi Sato3 7 8 Author Affiliation: 9 1Centre d’Etudes Biologiques Chizé, CNRS – Université de la Rochelle, 79360 Villiers 10 En Bois, France. 11 2Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Furo, Chikusa, 12 Nagoya, Japan. 13 3Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Chiba, Japan. 14 15 16 Corresponding Author: 17 Yusuke Goto 18 Centre d’Etudes Biologiques Chizé, CNRS – Université de la Rochelle, 79360 Villiers 19 En Bois, France. 20 e-mail:
[email protected] 21 TEL: +814-7136-6220 22 23 24 Keywords: 25 birds, pterosaurs, soaring performance, wind, dynamic soaring, thermal soaring 26 27 28 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.31.354605; this version posted November 17, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 29 Summary 30 The largest extinct volant birds (Pelagornis sandersi and Argentavis magnificens) and pterosaurs 31 (Pteranodon and Quetzalcoatlus) are thought to have used wind-dependent soaring flight, similar to 32 modern large birds. There are two types of soaring: thermal soaring, used by condors and frigatebirds, 33 which involves the use of updrafts over the land or the sea to ascend and then glide horizontally; and 34 dynamic soaring, used by albatrosses, which involves the use of wind speed differences with height above 35 the sea surface.