Birds Best Bats In Flying Game

The scientific news site LiveScience wrote a cool piece on one of our recent publications (Comparing Aerodynamic Efficiency in Birds and Bats Suggests Better Flight Performance in Birds, PLoS ONE). The title of the piece is 'Birds Best Bats In Flying Game', and particularly their summary is entertaining: 'The bats may be trading some of their flying efficiency to carry extra echolocation equipment aboard'.

You can find the article here.

New publicatiions from the wind tunnel

Two new publications have recently been published from members of AFL. They are:

Johansson LC, Engel S, Baird E, Dacke M, Muijres FT, Hedenström A (2012) Elytra boost lift, but reduce aerodynamic efficiency in flying beetles. J R Soc Interface: doi:10.1098/rsif.2012.0053

Muijres FT, Johansson LC, Bowlin MS, Winter Y, Hedenstrom A (2012) Comparing Aerodynamic Efficiency in Birds and Bats Suggests Better Flight Performance in Birds. PLoS ONE 7(5): e37335. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0037335

The first shows how the elytra and functional wing in a species of large African dung beetle interact, and potentially reduce flight efficiency. The second paper is also about efficiency, but comparing birds with bats to show that birds are more efficient at cruising flight than bats, while bats may be better adapted for slow maneuvering flight using leading edge vortices.