Taiwan researchers participating in transnational research have helped research a 289-million-year-old pre-dinosaur fossil, revealing key clues to the evolution of rib cage-driven breathing.
Lee Yao-chang (李耀昌) from Taiwan’s National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center said that amniotes use an integrated thoracic skeleton to inhale and exhale oxygen via costal muscles, a major difference from their anamniote relatives, which rely on breathing through their skin or throats.
The study said the difference extends well into the Paleozoic era, but there was scant documentation of the evolutionary transformations between the two modes.
Photo courtesy of thewan’s National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center
Ethan Mooney, who co-led the study at the University of Toronto and is now a doctoral candidate in the evolutionary biology department at Harvard University, said he used neutron computed tomography to scan three mummified Captorhinus aguti, a small lizard-like creature from the pre-dinosaur Permian period, that died 289 million years ago.
Thoracic breathing, in which the muscles between the ribs expand and compress the chest cavity to draw air deep into the lungs, is far more effective, bringing in more oxygen and expelling more carbon dioxide, according to Harvard University.
The remains were discovered in the US, in cave systems near Richards Spur, Oklahoma, a site where unique conditions, including oil seepage and oxygen-free mud, preserved not only the animals’ bones, but its skin and cartilage, resulting in a 3D mummified fossil frozen in its death pose.
The study found previously undescribed structures in one of the animals’ mummified body, including the cartilaginous sternum, sternal ribs, rib extensions and epicoracoids, which suggest the precise relationships between the ribcage and the shoulder girdle and their pivotal role in the evolution of terrestrial breathing and locomotor regimes.
The mummified animal was examined at the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, which houses the Taiwan Light Source used in the process, pushing forward the preservation record of soft tissues and proteins of terrestrial vertebrates by 100 million years, Lee said.
The study was published in the scientific journal Nature on April 8.
Lee said the study underscores the growing importance of cross-scale analytical techniques in paleontological research.
For the past 14 to 15 years, the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center has built up extensive expertise in fossil studies, including analyses of dinosaur embryos, Tyrannosaurus teeth and collagen preserved in fossils, he said.
By combining neutron computed tomography imaging with synchrotron infrared microspectroscopy, researchers have been able to reconstruct crucial details about the evolution and physiology of ancient life dating back hundreds of millions of years, he said.
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