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      Quantitative assessment of the vertebral pneumaticity in an anhanguerid pterosaur using micro-CT scanning

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          Abstract

          Research on the postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in pterosaurs is common in the literature, but most studies present only qualitative assessments. When quantitative, they are done on isolated bones. Here, we estimate the Air Space Proportion (ASP) obtained from micro-CT scans of the sequence from the sixth cervical to the fourth dorsal vertebra of an anhanguerine pterosaur to understand how pneumaticity is distributed in these bones. Pneumatisation of the vertebrae varied between 68 and 72% of their total volume. The neural arch showed higher ASP in all vertebrae. Anhanguerine vertebral ASP was generally higher than in sauropod vertebrae but lower than in most extant birds. The ASP observed here is lower than that calculated for the appendicular skeleton of other anhanguerian pterosaurs, indicating the potential existence of variation between axial and appendicular pneumatisation. The results point to a pattern in the distribution of the air space, which shows an increase in the area occupied by the trabecular bone in the craniocaudal direction of the vertebral series and, in each vertebra, an increase of the thickness of the trabeculae in the zygapophyses. This indicates that the distribution of pneumatic diverticula in anhanguerine vertebrae may not be associated with stochastic patterns.

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          NIH Image to ImageJ: 25 years of image analysis

          For the past twenty five years the NIH family of imaging software, NIH Image and ImageJ have been pioneers as open tools for scientific image analysis. We discuss the origins, challenges and solutions of these two programs, and how their history can serve to advise and inform other software projects.
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            The evolution of vertebral pneumaticity in sauropod dinosaurs

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              Postcranial pneumaticity: an evaluation of soft-tissue influences on the postcranial skeleton and the reconstruction of pulmonary anatomy in archosaurs.

              Postcranial pneumaticity has been reported in numerous extinct sauropsid groups including pterosaurs, birds, saurischian dinosaurs, and, most recently, both crurotarsan and basal archosauriform taxa. By comparison with extant birds, pneumatic features in fossils have formed the basis for anatomical inferences concerning pulmonary structure and function, in addition to higher-level inferences related to growth, metabolic rate, and thermoregulation. In this study, gross dissection, vascular and pulmonary injection, and serial sectioning were employed to assess the manner in which different soft tissues impart their signature on the axial skeleton in a sample of birds, crocodylians, and lizards. Results from this study indicate that only cortical foramina or communicating fossae connected with large internal chambers are reliable and consistent indicators of pneumatic invasion of bone. As both vasculature and pneumatic diverticula may produce foramina of similar sizes and shapes, cortical features alone do not necessarily indicate pneumaticity. Noncommunicating (blind) vertebral fossae prove least useful, as these structures are associated with many different soft-tissue systems. This Pneumaticity Profile (PP) was used to evaluate the major clades of extinct archosauriform taxa with purported postcranial pneumaticity. Unambiguous indicators of pneumaticity are present only in certain ornithodiran archosaurs (e.g., sauropod and theropod dinosaurs, pterosaurs). In contrast, the basal archosauriform Erythrosuchus africanus and other nonornithodiran archosaurs (e.g., parasuchians) fail to satisfy morphological criteria of the PP, namely, that internal cavities are absent within bone, even though blind fossae and/or cortical foramina are present on vertebral neural arches. An examination of regional pneumaticity in extant avians reveals remarkably consistent patterns of diverticular invasion of bone, and thus provides increased resolution for inferring specific components of the pulmonary air sac system in their nonavian theropod ancestors. By comparison with well-preserved exemplars from within Neotheropoda (e.g., Abelisauridae, Allosauroidea), the following pattern emerges: pneumaticity of cervical vertebrae and ribs suggests pneumatization by lateral vertebral diverticula of a cervical air sac system, with sacral pneumaticity indicating the presence of caudally expanding air sacs and/or diverticula. The identification of postcranial pneumaticity in extinct taxa minimally forms the basis for inferring a heterogeneous pulmonary system with distinct exchange and nonexchange (i.e., air sacs) regions. Combined with inferences supporting a rigid, dorsally fixed lung, osteological indicators of cervical and abdominal air sacs highlight the fundamental layout of a flow-through pulmonary apparatus in nonavian theropods. Copyright (c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                richardbuchmann@gmail.com
                Journal
                Sci Rep
                Sci Rep
                Scientific Reports
                Nature Publishing Group UK (London )
                2045-2322
                21 September 2021
                21 September 2021
                2021
                : 11
                : 18718
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.412371.2, ISNI 0000 0001 2167 4168, Laboratório de Paleontologia, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Centro de Ciências Humanas e Naturais, , Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, ; Vitória, ES 29075-910 Brazil
                [2 ]GRID grid.467095.9, ISNI 0000 0001 2237 7915, Laboratório de Mastozoologia, Departamento de Zoologia, , Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, ; Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22290-240 Brazil
                [3 ]GRID grid.8536.8, ISNI 0000 0001 2294 473X, Laboratório de Sistemática e Tafonomia de Vertebrados Fósseis, Departamento de Geologia e Paleontologia, , Museu Nacional / Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, ; Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20940-040 Brazil
                [4 ]GRID grid.7080.f, Research Group of Computational Paleobiology, Evolutionary Paleobiology Area, Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, C/ de Les Columnes, , Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ; 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia Spain
                [5 ]GRID grid.437830.b, ISNI 0000 0001 2176 2141, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, ; 70191 Stuttgart, Germany
                Article
                97856
                10.1038/s41598-021-97856-6
                8455612
                778cb7be-923b-4487-95d4-d212d76b8739
                © The Author(s) 2021

                Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 3 April 2021
                : 30 August 2021
                Funding
                Funded by: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
                Award ID: Finance Code 001
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
                Award ID: #E-26/002.360/2020
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
                Award ID: #140789/2016-2
                Award ID: #307555/2016-0
                Award ID: #309666/2019-8
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
                Award ID: #3474/09-7
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Espírito Santo
                Award ID: #52986870/2011
                Award Recipient :
                Categories
                Article
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2021

                Uncategorized
                palaeontology,evolution,zoology,anatomy
                Uncategorized
                palaeontology, evolution, zoology, anatomy

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