PITTSBURGH, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- The ongoing argument over whether enormous prehistoric winged dinosaurs could fly has some U.S. researchers claiming the creatures "pole-vaulted" into the air.
The study, by Mark Witton from the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom and Michael Habib from Chatham University in Pittsburgh contradicts recent assertions that the creatures were flightless and offers an explanation of how they took to the air, ScienceDaily.com reported.
Whitton and Habib say the giant reptiles, known as pterosaurs, took off by using all four of their limbs and effectively 'pole-vaulting' over their wings using their leg muscles and pushing from the ground using their powerful arm muscles.
Previous assertions they were flightless were based on assumptions that they were too heavy or because they would have taken off like birds, by running or leaping into the air using just their hind limbs.
"But when examining pterosaurs the bird analogy can be stretched too far," Whitton says.
"These creatures were not birds; they were flying reptiles with a distinctly different skeletal structure, wing proportions and muscle mass.
"They would have achieved flight in a completely different way to birds and would have had a lower angle of takeoff and initial flight trajectory. The anatomy of these creatures is unique," he says.
With as much as 110 pounds of forelimb muscle, the researchers say, the creatures, standing 15 feet high with a 30-foot wingspan, could easily have launched themselves into the air despite their massive size and weight.
