Why Dinosaurs had “Fowl” Breath?

www.sciencedaily.com                                                                                            11/9/07

 The University of Manchester team has found that theropod dinosaurs, like the Velociraptor had similar respiratory systems to present-day diving birds, such as marine birds and wildfowl.The findings present for the first time an explanation of how these dinosaurs may have breathed. A number of studies have shown that dinosaurs were the direct ancestors of birds and have identified a suite of avian characteristics in theropods. These findings, support this view and show that the similarities also extend to breathing structures and that these dinosaurs possessed everything they needed to breathe using an avian-like air-sac respiratory system. Birds, and in particular diving birds, have one of the most efficient respiratory systems of all vertebrates which they need in order to supply their bodies with enough oxygen to sustain the high levels of energy required for flight. The dinosaurs we studied from the fossil record had long uncinate processes similar in structure to those of diving birds. This suggests both dinosaurs and diving birds need longer lever arms to help them breathe. Finding these structures in modern birds and their extinct dinosaur ancestors suggests that these running dinosaurs had an efficient respiratory system and supports the theory that they were highly active animals that could run relatively quickly when pursuing their prey.

Everyday we our learning more and more about our past. Even to this day we are still studying all the way back to the dinosaurs and the information is becoming more and more accurate. This is amazing and I can’t wait to see what we find out next.