Re: PNEUMASTATICS & FROGS

["Mickey_Mortimer" <Mickey_Mortimer11@email.msn.com>]

David Marjanovic wrote-

> Is there one in _Acta Pal. Pol._ too, or do you mean the SVP paper?

Check the archives.

Wedel, MJ, Cifelli, RL & Sanders, RK. 2000. Osteology, paleobiology, and
relationships of the sauropod dinosaur Sauroposeidon. ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA
POLONICA. 45 (4) : 343-388
Sauroposeidon proteles is a large brachiosaurid sauropod recently described
from the Antlers Formation (Aptian-Albian) of southeastern Oklahoma.
Sauroposeidon represents
the culmination of brachiosaurid trends toward lengthening and lightening
the neck, and its cervical vertebrae are characterized by extensive
pneumatic structures. The elaboration of vertebral air sacs during sauropod
evolution produced a variety of internal structure types.
We propose a new classification system for this array of vertebral
characters, using computed tomography (CT) of pneumatic internal structures.
Comparisons with birds
suggest that the vertebrae of sauropods were pneumatized by a complex system
of air sacs in the thorax and abdomen. The presence of a thoraco-abdominal
air sac system in
sauropods would dramatically affect current estimates of mass, food intake,
and respiratory requirements. Sauroposeidon was one of the last sauropods in
the Early Cretaceous of North America; sauropods disappeared from the
continent by the early Cenomanian. The demise of sauropods in the Early
Cretaceous of North America predates significant radiations of angiosperms,
so the decline and extinction of this dinosaur group cannot be
linked to changes in flora.

Mickey Mortimer