Soft Tissues Influence Nasal Airflow in Diapsids: Implications for Dinosaurs
Title
Soft Tissues Influence Nasal Airflow in Diapsids: Implications for Dinosaurs
Date
2023
Publisher
Wiley
Subject
CFD
Airway
Computational fluid dynamics
Nasal passage
Sauropsid
Airway
Computational fluid dynamics
Nasal passage
Sauropsid
Language
English
Abstract
The nasal passage performs multiple functions in amniotes, including olfaction and thermoregulation. These functions would have been present in extinct animals as well. However, fossils preserve only low-resolution versions of the nasal passage due to loss of soft-tissue structures after death. To test the effects of these lower resolution models on interpretations of nasal physiology, we performed a broadly comparative analysis of the nasal passages in extant diapsid representatives, e.g., alligator, turkey, ostrich, iguana, and a monitor lizard. Using computational fluid dynamics, we simulated airflow through 3D reconstructed models of the different nasal passages and compared these soft-tissue-bounded results to similar analyses of the same airways under the lower-resolution limits imposed by fossilization. Airflow patterns in these bony-bounded airways were more homogeneous and slower flowing than those of their soft-tissue counterparts. These data indicate that bony-bounded airway reconstructions of extinct animal nasal passages are far too conservative and place overly restrictive physiological limitations on extinct species. In spite of the diverse array of nasal passage shapes, distinct similarities in airflow were observed, including consistent areas of nasal passage constriction such as the junction of the olfactory region and main airway. These nasal constrictions can reasonably be inferred to have been present in extinct taxa such as dinosaurs.
Source
Journal of Morphology, Volume 284, Issue 9, September 2023
Rights
© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Morphology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,provided the original work is properly cited.
Format
PDF
Type
Text
Identifier
Bibliographic Citation
Bourke, J. M., & Witmer, L. M. (2023). Soft tissues influence nasal airflow in diapsids: Implications for dinosaurs. In Journal of Morphology (Vol. 284, Issue 9). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.21619
Files
Collection
Citation
Bourke, J. M., & Witmer, L. M., Soft Tissues Influence Nasal Airflow in Diapsids: Implications for Dinosaurs. Journal of Morphology, Volume 284, Issue 9, September 2023, New York Tech Institutional Repository, accessed May 10, 2024, https://repository.nyitlibrary.org/items/show/3684
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