References
Reference
Cruickshank, Arthur R I et. al. (1991) Dorsal nostrils and hydrodynamically driven underwater olfaction in plesiosaurs; Nature (Letters to Nature), 352(), pp.
Dorsal nostrils and hydrodynamically driven underwater olfaction in plesiosaurs
Principal Author
Arthur R I Cruickshank
Other Authors
Michael Alan Taylor, Philip G. Small
Header
Academic paper
Journal
Nature (Letters to Nature)
Volume
352
Abstract
THE dorsally placed external nostrils of plesiosaurs are usually regarded as an adaptation to breathing in those extinct marine reptiles. We suggest instead that the narial system was used in underwater olfaction. The internal nares are anterior to the exter-nal nares. Hydrodynamic pressure during swimming forced water into the mouth. along palatal grooves into the scoop-shaped inter-nal nares and up short ducts, presumably lined with olfactory epithelia. Alternatively, or additionally, the so far unlocated Jacobson's organ detected particulate matter. The water was sucked out through the external nares by hydrodynamic pressures generated by fast flow over the convex upper surface of the head.
Keywords
paleoecology; reptiles; Jurassic; Reptilia; Plesiosauria; England; paleontology; Sauropterygia; Euryapsida; Great Britain; United Kingdom; Western Europe; Europe; Rhomaleosaurus megacephalus; Leicestershire; morphology; functional morphology; Hettangian; lower Liassic; Lower Jurassic; olfaction; paleobiology; marine environment; environment; nares; CAT; computed axial tomography; tomography
Language
English