ArticleScientific reports2022
The absence of an invasive air sac system in the earliest dinosaurs suggests multiple origins of vertebral pneumaticity.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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13 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Osteological correlates of the respiratory and vascular systems in the neural canals of Mesozoic ornithurines Ichthyornis and Janavis.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Inside a duck-billed dinosaur: Vertebral bone microstructure of Huallasaurus (Hadrosauridae), Upper Cretaceous of Patagonia.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Histovariability and fossil diagenesis of Pissarrachampsa (Pseudosuchia, Notosuchia, Baurusuchidae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Southeast Brazil.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Computed tomography reveals multiple origins of extreme caudal vertebral pneumaticity in sauropod dinosaurs.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- New information on Late Triassic sauropodomorph dinosaurs provides support for the independent acquisition of postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in avemetatarsalian lineages.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- The evolution of the air sac system in theropod dinosaurs: Evidence from the Upper Cretaceous of Madagascar.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- The origin and evolution of air sacs in pterosaurs and their forerunners.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- The living dinosaur: accomplishments and challenges of reconstructing dinosaur physiology.Biology letters · 2025Review
- Avian air sacs and neopulmo: their evolution, form and function.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- The influence of soft tissue volume on estimates of skeletal pneumaticity: implications for fossil archosaurs.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Whence the birds: 200 years of dinosaurs, avian antecedents.Biology letters · 2025Review
- Variation in air sac morphology and postcranial skeletal pneumatization patterns in the African grey parrot.Journal of anatomy · 2025Article
- Macroevolutionary patterns in the pelvis, stylopodium and zeugopodium of megalosauroid theropod dinosaurs and their importance for locomotor function.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
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8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
The origin of the air sac system present in birds has been an enigma for decades. Skeletal pneumaticity related to an air sac system is present in both derived non-avian dinosaurs and pterosaurs. But the question remained open whether this was a shared trait present in the common avemetatarsalian ancestor. We analyzed three taxa from the Late Triassic of South Brazil, which are some of the oldest representatives of this clade (233.23 ± 0.73 Ma), including two sauropodomorphs and one herrerasaurid. All three taxa present shallow lateral fossae in the centra of their presacral vertebrae. Foramina are present in many of the fossae but at diminutive sizes consistent with neurovascular rather than pneumatic origin. Micro-tomography reveals a chaotic architecture of dense apneumatic bone tissue in all three taxa. The early sauropodomorphs showed more complex vascularity, which possibly served as the framework for the future camerate and camellate pneumatic structures of more derived saurischians. Finally, the evidence of the absence of postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in the oldest dinosaurs contradicts the homology hypothesis for an invasive diverticula system and suggests that this trait evolved independently at least 3 times in pterosaurs, theropods, and sauropodomorphs.
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