Excavators in Argentina recently found the first unambiguous evidence that a group of Theopod dinosaurs have hollow bones capable of carrying air cysts – a ability to help birds to fly, according to Ticket Posted in Plos one.
The discovery adds to an increasing collection of research that revealed that all theopods and sauropods may have bones with air bags.
This is one feature and inherited it [from a common ancestor]Says Guillermo Windholz, the scientist of excavation at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research in Argentina (Conicet) and Rio Negro National University. “This is why actual birds fly – it is a really crazy feature.”
Dinosaurs with hollow bones
Varizsoridate was a group of dinosaurs that mostly lived in Argentina in the late Cretaceous era about 83 million years ago to 86 million years. It was not huge-it was almost the smallest in the size of the chicken while the largest was larger than 10 feet to 13 feet from the hook to the tail.
Winnhalles says it is unclear what these creatures have eaten, although they are based on their teeth, but she was eating meat.
Today, birds contain hollow bones, which give a space for the loose tissue tissue connected to the lungs. These features help reduce bird bodies – a special task for flying.
Boats and some dinosaurs also contain hollow bones, although it is not quite clear that these features allowed an area of air bags. One study published in 2022 I found that some of the oldest known Avemetatarsalians – the ancestors of birds, ties and dinosaurs – had no traces of air bags. Ornithischias, one of the three main groups of dinosaurs alongside Theopods and SARORPODS. But all the saurischians that have been examined so far have these features.
Read more: As fishermen eat meat with a strong jaws, the broker ruled
Callowed bones with CT scans
Most dinosaurs bones are examined only outside – determine whether hollow will require open breakage. As such, although it is believed that some of them are hollow, many dinosaurs bones have not been fully examined enough to prove that the cavities inside the vertebrae somehow are linked to the lungs. This means that it is difficult to determine whether these cavities contain air bags similar to birds today.
But technology, such as computerized tomography, has allowed a more comprehensive examination of the interior of excavations.
In the recent study, Winnhalles and his colleagues did so, and they wiped 11 paragraphs of various paragraphs Bonapartenykus Ultimus Samples.
CT scans revealed that B. Ultimus The vertebrae were already hollow – not completely surprising because most theropods and other sauropods that have been checked with hollow bones. But not all the paragraphs are a gift – some Theopods have etiquette paragraphs that were not filled with air, says Wennahols.
However, the survey operations allowed Lindaols and his colleagues to see that these hollow cavities inside the vertebrates were connected abroad through the cortical openings called Foramina. Basically, these are the clips in which the air may have traveled from the lungs of dinosaurs into the vertebrae and back.
Why did the dinosaurs had hollow bones?
Windholz’s modern study helped improve the knowledge of excavation scientists using these hollow cavities in theopods – and has confirmed that at least in Alvarezsaurids, cavities were used in air bags.
It is difficult to determine the reason for these creatures in the hollow bones and air bags in their paragraphs. For fast -moving TheroPods, Hollow Bones may have helped increase her speed by reducing her pregnancy.
But if this is true, then why does the large sauropods also contain hollow bones? These large creatures, which were assumed that they were roaming on four solid legs, were not trying to a journey, after all. Some scientists have speculated that the hollow bones may have helped them alleviate their super mass during their movement, but there is not necessarily unanimously on this topic.
The 2022 study indicated that Sauropods, Pterosaurs and Theopods may have all the air bags have evolved in their bones independently from each other. But this may be because the vertebrae of a common predecessor is more than Avemetatarsalians, which have evidence of air bags, have not been examined or discovered yet.
If there is a common ancestor, it is also possible that the hollow bones serve as the remains of the ancestors of these dinosaurs, says Winnahols. What may be useful in saurischians, for example, may be mainly useless – an average supplement – in sauropods and theopods.
At least until the birds and their spoilers came and used these bones filled with air to overcome.
Read more: About 120 million years ago, Thirubod may have been with giant claws that have ruled Australia
condition sources
Our book is in DiscoverMagazine.com Use studies reviewed by peers and high -quality sources of our articles, and review our editors for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Joshua Rapp Learn is a DC award writer. One of the expatriates, Albertan, contributes to a number of scientific publications such as National Geographic, New York Times, The Guardian, New Hakai and others.