Publication Date:
2001-08-04
Description:
Many dinosaurs have enormous and complicated bony nasal apertures. Functional interpretation requires knowledge of the location of the external opening in the skin. Traditionally, the fleshy nostril of dinosaurs has been placed in the back of the bony opening, but studies of extant dinosaur relatives suggest that it is located far forward. Narial blood supply and cavernous tissue corroborate the rostral position in dinosaurs. A rostral nostril was, and remains, a virtually invariant rule of construction among Amniota, which has consequences for (i) nasal airstreaming, and hence various physiological parameters, and (ii) the collection of behaviorally relevant circumoral odorants.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Witmer, L M -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2001 Aug 3;293(5531):850-3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA. witmer@exchange.oucom.ohiou.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11486085" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Alligators and Crocodiles/anatomy & histology/physiology
;
Animals
;
Behavior, Animal
;
Birds/anatomy & histology/physiology
;
Lizards/anatomy & histology/physiology
;
Nasal Bone/*anatomy & histology/radiography
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Nasal Cavity/anatomy & histology/radiography
;
Nose/*anatomy & histology/blood supply/physiology/radiography
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Paleontology
;
Phylogeny
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Reptiles/*anatomy & histology/physiology
;
Respiration
;
Smell
;
Species Specificity
;
Vertebrates/*anatomy & histology/physiology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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