Animal locomotion: a new spin on bat flight.
Biologists and engineers have long struggled to understand the hovering flight of insects, birds, and bats. The enormous diversity of these groups would suggest they fly using a variety of mechanisms, but a new study shows that hovering bats use the same aerodynamic mechanisms as do moths and other insects.
Bioengineering and Biology, California Institute of Technology, MC 138-78, Pasadena, California 91125, USA. flyman@caltech.edu
Michael
M
Dickinson
D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000502:physiology*; D005426:Flight, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000502:physiology*