ArticleRoyal Society open science2018
Vertebral morphometrics and lung structure in non-avian dinosaurs.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- The living dinosaur: accomplishments and challenges of reconstructing dinosaur physiology.Biology letters · 2025Review
- Insights into the early evolution of modern avian physiology from fossilized soft tissues from the Mesozoic.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Avian air sacs and neopulmo: their evolution, form and function.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Unidirectional airflow, air sacs or the horizontal septum: what does it take to make a bird lung?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- When the lung invades: a review of avian postcranial skeletal pneumaticity.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Computational Approaches and Observer Variation in the 3D Musculoskeletal Modeling of the Heads ofIntegrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- An ankylosaur larynx provides insights for bird-like vocalization in non-avian dinosaurs.Communications biology · 2023Article
- A neweLife · 2021Article
- Environmental drivers of body size evolution in crocodile-line archosaurs.Communications biology · 2021Article
- Respiratory evolution in archosaurs.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- The evolution of mechanisms involved in vertebrate endothermy.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Comment on BrocklehurstRoyal Society open science · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The lung-air sac system of modern birds is unique among vertebrates. However, debate surrounds whether an avian-style lung is restricted to birds or first appeared in their dinosaurian ancestors, as common osteological correlates for the respiratory system offer limited information on the lungs themselves. Here, we shed light on these issues by using axial morphology as a direct osteological correlate of lung structure, and quantifying vertebral shape using geometric morphometrics in birds, crocodilians and a wide range of dinosaurian taxa. Although fully avian lungs were a rather late innovation, we quantitatively show that non-avian dinosaurs and basal dinosauriforms possessed bird-like costovertebral joints and a furrowed thoracic ceiling. This would have immobilized the lung's dorsal surface, a structural prerequisite for a thinned blood-gas barrier and increased gas exchange potential. This could have permitted high levels of aerobic and metabolic activity in dinosaurs, even in the hypoxic conditions of the Mesozoic, contributing to their successful radiation.
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