Respiratory evolution facilitated the origin of pterosaur flight and aerial gigantism.

Pterosaurs, enigmatic extinct Mesozoic reptiles, were the first vertebrates to achieve true flapping flight. Various lines of evidence provide strong support for highly efficient wing design, control, and flight capabilities. However, little is known of the pulmonary system that powered flight in pt...

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Autores principales:	Leon P A M Claessens, Patrick M O'Connor, David M Unwin
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2009
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/7db389d770424801833ba2efbce9183e
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:7db389d770424801833ba2efbce9183e2021-11-25T06:17:15ZRespiratory evolution facilitated the origin of pterosaur flight and aerial gigantism.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0004497https://doaj.org/article/7db389d770424801833ba2efbce9183e2009-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/19223979/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Pterosaurs, enigmatic extinct Mesozoic reptiles, were the first vertebrates to achieve true flapping flight. Various lines of evidence provide strong support for highly efficient wing design, control, and flight capabilities. However, little is known of the pulmonary system that powered flight in pterosaurs. We investigated the structure and function of the pterosaurian breathing apparatus through a broad scale comparative study of respiratory structure and function in living and extinct archosaurs, using computer-assisted tomographic (CT) scanning of pterosaur and bird skeletal remains, cineradiographic (X-ray film) studies of the skeletal breathing pump in extant birds and alligators, and study of skeletal structure in historic fossil specimens. In this report we present various lines of skeletal evidence that indicate that pterosaurs had a highly effective flow-through respiratory system, capable of sustaining powered flight, predating the appearance of an analogous breathing system in birds by approximately seventy million years. Convergent evolution of gigantism in several Cretaceous pterosaur lineages was made possible through body density reduction by expansion of the pulmonary air sac system throughout the trunk and the distal limb girdle skeleton, highlighting the importance of respiratory adaptations in pterosaur evolution, and the dramatic effect of the release of physical constraints on morphological diversification and evolutionary radiation.Leon P A M ClaessensPatrick M O'ConnorDavid M UnwinPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 4, Iss 2, p e4497 (2009)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Leon P A M Claessens Patrick M O'Connor David M Unwin Respiratory evolution facilitated the origin of pterosaur flight and aerial gigantism.
description	Pterosaurs, enigmatic extinct Mesozoic reptiles, were the first vertebrates to achieve true flapping flight. Various lines of evidence provide strong support for highly efficient wing design, control, and flight capabilities. However, little is known of the pulmonary system that powered flight in pterosaurs. We investigated the structure and function of the pterosaurian breathing apparatus through a broad scale comparative study of respiratory structure and function in living and extinct archosaurs, using computer-assisted tomographic (CT) scanning of pterosaur and bird skeletal remains, cineradiographic (X-ray film) studies of the skeletal breathing pump in extant birds and alligators, and study of skeletal structure in historic fossil specimens. In this report we present various lines of skeletal evidence that indicate that pterosaurs had a highly effective flow-through respiratory system, capable of sustaining powered flight, predating the appearance of an analogous breathing system in birds by approximately seventy million years. Convergent evolution of gigantism in several Cretaceous pterosaur lineages was made possible through body density reduction by expansion of the pulmonary air sac system throughout the trunk and the distal limb girdle skeleton, highlighting the importance of respiratory adaptations in pterosaur evolution, and the dramatic effect of the release of physical constraints on morphological diversification and evolutionary radiation.
format	article
author	Leon P A M Claessens Patrick M O'Connor David M Unwin
author_facet	Leon P A M Claessens Patrick M O'Connor David M Unwin
author_sort	Leon P A M Claessens
title	Respiratory evolution facilitated the origin of pterosaur flight and aerial gigantism.
title_short	Respiratory evolution facilitated the origin of pterosaur flight and aerial gigantism.
title_full	Respiratory evolution facilitated the origin of pterosaur flight and aerial gigantism.
title_fullStr	Respiratory evolution facilitated the origin of pterosaur flight and aerial gigantism.
title_full_unstemmed	Respiratory evolution facilitated the origin of pterosaur flight and aerial gigantism.
title_sort	respiratory evolution facilitated the origin of pterosaur flight and aerial gigantism.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2009
url	https://doaj.org/article/7db389d770424801833ba2efbce9183e
work_keys_str_mv	AT leonpamclaessens respiratoryevolutionfacilitatedtheoriginofpterosaurflightandaerialgigantism AT patrickmoconnor respiratoryevolutionfacilitatedtheoriginofpterosaurflightandaerialgigantism AT davidmunwin respiratoryevolutionfacilitatedtheoriginofpterosaurflightandaerialgigantism
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Respiratory evolution facilitated the origin of pterosaur flight and aerial gigantism.

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