Option#4doesn’t seem very likely to me, but it is fascinating to consider the implications. I’ve long suspected that the giant Oklahoma apatosaurine represents a new species at least, based on a bunch of characters I’m not going into in this post, but I’ve never done the thesis-e...
As you can see, while the vertebrae of the neck are pulled back into a strong curve, the trachea doesn’t bother, and just sort of hangs there from the base of the head to the top of the lungs, cheerfully crossing over (i.e. passing to the side of) the vertebral sequence. So the...
Similarly to ABC transporters, members of the SLC superfamily are expressed ubiquitously in normal tissues such as the brain, kidneys, liver, placenta, and lungs and in various tumors. These transporters are particularly important for the cellular uptake of water-soluble molecules, such as folate an...
It’s still exciting, in that it shows that there were abdominal air sacs, and they were separate from the lungs and cervical air sacs, but this example in YPM 429 is now third in line in terms of priority, just within this one genus. Which is why I’m telling the world with a ...
A simplified diagram of the sauropod respiratory system. What I’ve labeled “air tubes” here are the pneumatic diverticula. Air holes in the vertebrae are also known as pneumatic foramina. The shapes of the lungs and air sacs are speculative, but the minimum extent of the pneumatic diverticul...
I wonder if their fancy lungs weren’t more of a hindrance than a help in the dusty, sooty, iridium-laced post-impact world. Anyway, there are interesting clues that the air sac systems of extant birds are just one subset of a much greater original diversity, like most (all?) birds st...
And the same thing labeled: And now flipped around so we can see it in medial view: And now that image labeled: And, hey, there are three of our alternative hypotheses on display: the long (many vertebral segments) lumbosacral expansion of the spinal cord, which is reflected in a gradual...
4. Study what you’re afraid of. Use fear and anxiety to your advantage: let them direct you to study what you’re afraid of. Think of your study time as a bug hunt, in which you systematically identify your weaknesses and deal with them. If you know the lungs cold but the thought...
I wonder if their fancy lungs weren’t more of a hindrance than a help in the dusty, sooty, iridium-laced post-impact world. Anyway, there are interesting clues that the air sac systems of extant birds are just one subset of a much greater original diversity, like most (all?) birds st...