Re: Air sacs in extant non-avian reptiles?

[Tony Canning <tonyc@foe.co.uk>]

"Henri Rönkkö" wrote:
> 
> I thank you for your reply, but I'm afraid there was a misunderstanding. I 
> was talking about extant, in other words, modern, nowdays reptiles (non-avian 
> ones). I have read that some of the both non-dinosaurian and non-avian 
> reptiles that live among us today have air sacs attached to their lungs. The 
> sources of mine are David Norman's book "Prehistoric life" and GSP's message 
> to the DML; the latter critisized the theropod lung articles of Ruben's team.
> 
> Now, I am pretty confident that the claims conserning the presence of 
> pulmonary air-sacs in some of today's non-avian and non-dinosaurian reptiles 
> is based on some real evidence. I would like to know the names of the animals.
> 
> And as we all know, air circulates unidirectionally in the avian pulmonary 
> complex. Today's non-avian and non-dinosaurian reptiles, as well as mammals, 
> in turn, have inefficient "dead-end" lungs. I was wondering, what possible 
> use could today's non-avian and non-dinosaurian reptiles possessing pulmonary 
> air sacs have for these air sacs, and asking anyone possessing the 
> information to reply me.
> 

Perhaps you are thinking of the non-vascularised portion of the snake
lung? I believe
this is essentially a reservoir of air, not in any way homologous to
dinosaurian
air sacs.

Cheers
Tony Canning