ArticlemBio2026
Did avian-like pulmonary anatomy increase the susceptibility of dinosaurs to fungal diseases? Extending the "fungal infection mammalian selection" hypothesis.
Article in mBio, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) bolide impact caused the extinction of over half of all plant and animal species. The "fungal infection mammalian-selection" (FIMS) hypothesis, first proposed in 2005, suggested that a post-K-Pg fungal bloom created selective pressures that favored the survival and evolutionary radiation of warm-blooded mammals due to their resistance to fungal diseases, while cold-blooded dinosaurs were at an evolutionary disadvantage. Evidence now indicates that dinosaurs were also endotherms; hence, body temperature alone was unlikely to have predisposed all dinosaurs to fungal infection. The fossil record suggests that avian-like respiratory anatomy was present in archosaurs, the ancestors of all dinosaurs. Here, we update the FIMS hypothesis, drawing on insights from modern bird anatomy and physiology, to suggest that dinosaurs may have been more susceptible to respiratory diseases, including fungal infections, perhaps sufficiently to tip the scales away from a second dinosaur age in a world replete with fungal spores.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.