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The recurrent laryngeal nerve is an often cited example of “unintelligent design” in biology, especially in the giraffe. The nerve appears early in embryonic development, before the pharyngeal and aortic arches are separated by the development of the neck. The recurrent course of the nerve from the brain, around the great vessels, to the larynx, is shared by all extant tetrapods. Therefore we may infer that the recurrent laryngeal nerve was present in extinct tetrapods, had the same developmental origin, and followed the same course. The longest−necked animals of all time were the extinct sauropod dinosaurs, some of which had necks 14 meters long. In these animals, the neurons that comprised the recurrent laryngeal nerve were at least 28 meters long. Still longer neurons may have spanned the distance from the end of the tail to the brainstem, as in all extant vertebrates. In the longest sauropods these neurons may have been 40–50 meters long, probably the longest cells in the history of life.
Postcranial skeletal pneumaticity (PSP) is present in a range of basal sauropodomorphs spanning the basal sauropodomorph–sauropod transition. We describe the PSP of five taxa, Plateosaurus engelhardti, Eucnemesaurus fortis, Aardonyx celestae, Antetonitrus ingenipes, and an unnamed basal sauropod from Spion Kop, South Africa (hereafter referred to as the Spion Kop sauropod). The PSP of Plateosaurus is apparently sporadic in its occurrence and has only been observed in very few specimens, in which it is of very limited extent, affecting only the posterior cervical vertebrae and possibly the mid dorsals in one specimen. The PSP of Eucnemesaurus, Aardonyx, Antetonitrus, and the Spion Kop sauropod consists of subfossae (fossa−within−fossa structures) that excavate the vertices of the posterior infradiapophyseal fossae of the posterior dorsal vertebrae. These subfossae range from simple shallow depressions (Eucnemesaurus) to deep, steepsided, internally subdivided and asymmetrically developed chambers (Antetonitrus). The middle and anterior dorsal vertebrae of these taxa lack PSP, demonstrating that abdominal air sacs were the source of the invasive diverticula. The presence of pneumatic features within the infradiapophyseal fossae suggest that the homologous fossae of more basal saurischians and dinosauriforms were receptacles that housed pneumatic diverticula. We suggest that it is probable that rigid non−compliant lungs ventilated by compliant posterior air sacs evolved prior to the origination of Dinosauria.
The neck posture of sauropod dinosaurs has long been controversial. Recent reconstructions position the cervical vertebrae and skull in an “osteological neutral pose” (ONP), the best fit arrived at by articulating the vertebrae with the zygapophyses in maximum contact. This approach in isolation suggests that most or all sauropods held their necks horizontally. However, a substantial literature on extant amniotes (mammals, turtles, squamates, crocodilians and birds) shows that living animals do not habitually maintain their necks in ONP. Instead, the neck is maximally extended and the head is maximally flexed, so that the mid−cervical region is near vertical. Unless sauropods behaved differently from all extant amniote groups, they must have habitually held their necks extended and their heads flexed. The life orientation of the heads of sauropods has been inferred from the inclination of the semi−circular canals. However, extant animals show wide variation in inclination of the “horizontal” semi−circular canal: the orientation of this structure is not tightly constrained and can give only a general idea of the life posture of extinct animals’ heads.
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.
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