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Pneumaticity in Triassic pterosaurs
Makes one wonder how many times this feature evolved...
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Biology Letters 2009 May 1. [Epub ahead of print]
Postcranial skeletal pneumaticity and air-sacs in the earliest
pterosaurs.Butler RJ, Barrett PM, Gower DJ.
Department of Palaeontology, and.
Patterns of postcranial skeletal pneumatization (PSP) indicate that pterosaurs
possessed components of a bird-like respiratory system, including a series of
ventilatory air-sacs. However, the presence of PSP in the oldest known
pterosaurs has not been unambiguously demonstrated by previous studies. Here we
provide the first unequivocal documentation of PSP in Late Triassic and
earliest Jurassic pterosaurs. This demonstrates that PSP and, by inference,
air-sacs were probably present in the common ancestor of almost all known
pterosaurs, and has broader implications for the evolution of respiratory
systems in bird-line archosaurs, including dinosaurs.
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Guy Leahy