Reactions to the world's largest glider

A couple of weeks ago, a paper came out online in PNAS, describing the aerodynamics of Argentavis magnificens, a big bird (presumably it had yellow feathers too).

The serious report on this work was done a few weeks ago, but my, err, friend Henry Pihlström has been looking at the paper too closely.

Henry pointed out some details in Figure 4. Here is the figure:


And, for those who don't stare obsessively at journal figures (or at least not as obsessively as Henry evidently does), here is Fig. 4C in detail:


I think the man's reaction is understandable - you wouldn't see that coming towards you on Sesame Street.

Reference
Chatterjee S, Templin RJ, Campbell KE. (2007) The aerodynamics of Argentavis, the world's largest flying bird from the Miocene of Argentina. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 104: 12398-12403.


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