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Dino Breath Fueled Their Fights

Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

Dinosaurs, like modern birds and crocodiles, were found to have the tiny, L-shaped uncinate processes that act as levers, moving the ribs and sternum out and in. Diving birds and dinos were found to have especially long levers, indicating very efficient breathing.

"At first, nobody even knew what role these structures played in modern birds," Codd said. "They're small and not particularly exciting to look at, so many people commonly misidentified them as rib bones poking out from the bird's back."

Since the dinosaur levers would have also pumped their abdomens full of air, dinosaurs also probably had the breath power of a trained singer who tries to fill his or her entire body, especially the abdomen, with air.

A big difference, however, is that dinosaurs would have had two exhalations for every inhalation, in contrast to our single "breathe in, breathe out" pattern, according to Codd.

"The function of uncinate processes, as proposed by Codd and collaborators, clearly could have facilitated the hypothesized...breathing mechanism of theropod dinosaurs," said David Carrier, a world-renown expert on bird and mammal breathing and locomotion.

Dinosaurs may have had respiratory systems similar to fowls, but did they have foul breath? Codd has his theories.

"It's quite likely," Codd said. "They possessed multiple teeth that would have trapped bits of rotting meat."

Related Links:

How fast could dinos run?

How birds breathe

The National Science Foundation: Digging Dinos

Theropod Dinosaurs

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