Re: On dinosaur lungs

[rbartlet@axionet.com (Rod Bartlett)]

Terry D.Jones wrote:

>Dinosaurs and early birds (Archaeopteryx and enantiornithines) do not have
>the thoracic skeletal morphology as modern birds--large sternum, or unique
>hinged ribs.  Therefore, they could not ventiolate a modern birdlike
>lung-air sac system.



How would you hypothesize on an ancestral bird-like lung, what could it
evolve from? I am looking at the clam that "dinosaurs couldn't have evolved
from birds because the lungs are different" forget the fact that we can't
look at a dinosaur lung. I'm not trying to beat this to death; I'm just
curious, could a birds lung be derived from something contained in a
dinosaur ribcage?

Rod