Yeah, but could they dance like penguins?
Dinosaurs breathed like penguins
By Helen Briggs
Science reporter, BBC News
Dinosaurs like Velociraptors owe their fearsome reputation to the way they breathed, according to a UK study.
They had one of the most efficient respiratory systems of all animals, similar to that of modern diving birds like penguins, fossil evidence shows.
It fuelled their bodies with oxygen for the task of sprinting after prey, say researchers at Manchester University.
The bipedal meat-eaters, the therapods, had air sacs ventilated by tiny bones that moved the ribcage up and down.
"Finding these structures in modern birds and their extinct dinosaur ancestors suggests that these running dinosaurs had an efficient respiratory system and supports the theory that they were highly active animals that could run relatively quickly when pursuing their prey," said Dr Jonathan Codd, who led the research.
"It provides a mechanism for facilitating avian-like breathing in non-avian dinosaurs and it was there long before the evolution of flight occurred," he told BBC News.
Bony projections
Modern-day birds have a highly specialised respiratory system, made up of a small rigid lung and around nine air sacs.
The bellows-like movement of the sternum and ribs moves air through the system.
Bony projections on the ribcage known as uncinate processes play an important role in both respiration and locomotion.
The small bones act as levers to move the ribs and sternum during breathing. They have become adapted in different types of birds to deal with different ways of getting around.
The bones are shortest in runners like emus that don't need large breast muscles for flight, intermediate in flying birds and longest in divers such as the penguin.
The Manchester team studied a wealth of fossil remains of dinosaurs and extinct birds such as Archaeopteryx, and compared these with skeletons of living birds.
They found that uncinate processes are also found both in the extinct ancestors of birds, the theropod dinosaurs, and in modern species.
Dinosaurs are most like diving birds in their morphology.
"The dinosaurs we studied from the fossil record had long uncinate processes similar in structure to those of diving birds," said Dr Codd.
"This suggests both dinosaurs and diving birds need longer lever arms to help them breathe," he added.
The data, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, may provide clues to how dinosaurs evolved and how they might have lived.
"Down, to the diaphragm. Hold it. Now, flap those wings and exhale. Good."
We bet they’d be murder in a marathon.
We’ve got it. How about “A Clockwork Nectarine?”
Brain Chemicals Involved In Aggression Identified: May Lead To New Treatments
ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2007) — School shootings. Muggings. Murder. Road rage. After decreasing for more than a decade, the rate of violent crime in the United States has begun to inch up again. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, violent crime rose 2.3 percent in 2005 and 1.9 percent in 2006, the first steady increase since 1993.
And new studies are helping scientists gain deeper insight into the neurobiology of aggression and violence. One analysis of brain imaging studies has revealed that brain structures involved in making moral judgments are often damaged in violent individuals. Another study involving teenage boys suggests that disruptions in a brain region linked to impulsive, aggressive behavior may underlie a certain type of violent, reactive behavior.
Still other research has shed new light on the role that certain brain chemicals play in aggressive behavior, including in maternal aggression. And new animal studies reveal that aggressive encounters cause changes in the brains of aggressors as well as their victims that increase vulnerability to depression and immune-related illnesses.
"Violence in our society is a major concern, indeed, a national health problem," says Craig Ferris, PhD, of Northeastern University in Boston. "Understanding the confluence of events, both environmental and biological, that trigger a violent act has been the focus of educators, health professionals, and scientists for decades.
"New imaging technologies and animal models have helped neuroscientists identify changes in brain neurobiology associated with inappropriate aggressive behavior," he says. "This information may help in the development of new psychosocial and psychotherapeutic intervention strategies." Ferris is a stockholder in Azevan Pharmaceuticals, which is developing drugs to stop self-injurious behavior.
Let’s see.
"Violence in our society is a major concern, indeed, a national health problem," says Craig Ferris, PhD, of Northeastern University in Boston.
And, “Ferris is a stockholder in Azevan Pharmaceuticals, which is developing drugs to stop self-injurious behavior.”
Oh yeah, that goes together...like research and dividends.
Headline of the day
Homeless man breaks into church to make sex hotline calls
(The Obscure Store)
Guess he was looking for a dedicated line.
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