Friday, October 28, 2022

Paranasal air sinuses of predatory and armored dinosaurs, pt. 2

Witmer & Ridgely paper: 

Witmer, L. M., & Ridgely, R. C. (2008). The paranasal air sinuses of predatory and armored dinosaurs (Archosauria: Theropoda and Ankylosauria) and their contribution to cephalic structure. The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, 291(11), 1362-1388.

Notes:

++ Nasal passages of the Majongasaurus and the T. Rex more closely resemble those of an ostrich than an alligator. "Anteorbital cavity is open laterally" and thus only covered by skin. Majongasaurus and T. Rex both had very extensive nasal sinuses that were pneumatized, even inflating bone. Eg. in T. Rex the palatine bone was inflated. T. Rex had larger nasal sinuses than Majongasaurus.

Terms: 

strut -- a structure to resist (generally) longitudinal compression. The face consists of many bones that act as struts. (wikipedia)

septa - walls, dividing a cavity or structure into smaller ones. (wikipedia)

lobular -a lobe is a clear anatomical division or extension[1] of an organ (as seen for example in the brain, lung, liver, or kidney) that can be determined without the use of a microscope at the gross anatomy level. (again, wikipedia)

ramus (plural rami) A small spray or twig. (biology) A branching, as of nerves or blood vessels. (wikipedia)

evaginate -(with reference to a tubular or pouch-shaped organ or structure) turn or be turned inside out. "the sacs evaginate and come to lie externally" from Oxford Languages

Palatine bone on a human:




Passage about nasal resonation in humans:
Re: singing in "the mask". Yes, I remember this phrase from my years being classically trained in voice. It is interesting how I can relate my personal experience to dinosaur research -- which -- I suppose is the point of this work (Rawr!, Dinosaur Choir) -- in a sense. 

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Open-source acoustical analysis tools

i-Simpa
https://i-simpa.univ-gustave-eiffel.fr/

PachydermAcoustic
https://github.com/PachydermAcoustic

 

Paranasal air sinuses of predatory and armored dinosaurs, pt. 1

Witmer, L. M., & Ridgely, R. C. (2008). The paranasal air sinuses of predatory and armored dinosaurs (Archosauria: Theropoda and Ankylosauria) and their contribution to cephalic structure. The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, 291(11), 1362-1388.

Summary: Examines and compares archosaur nasal passages and sinuses of extinct and extant archosaurs. Focuses on 2 predatory theropods and 2 ankylosaurs, using the living taxa (alligator, ostrich, etc.) to infer soft tissues and compare.

Notes: 

++Used Amira software for segmentation

++In alligators, the antorbital fenestra are lost and their sinuses are enclosed with bone -- like mammals. Compares the antorbital sinus with the mammalian maxillary sinus. Nasal airway is long bc of their second palate.

++This antorbital sinus is the only paranasal sinus shared across Archosauria.  Ostriches, the other living taxa compared, also has one similar to a crocodile. Suborbital sinus is the largest in ostriches.

Terms: 

An ostium (plural ostia) in anatomy is a small opening or orifice. (wikipedia)

Abelisaurids - theropod ceratosaurian dinosaurs, mostly found in the Cretaceous. eg. Carnotaurus. note: Smaller arms than t. rex.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Vocalization References

Riede T, Tokuda IT, Farmer CG. Subglottal pressure and fundamental frequency control in contact calls of juvenile Alligator mississippiensis. J Exp Biol. 2011;214:3082–
3095. Accessed from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3160820.

Riede, T., Li, Z., Tokuda, I. T., & Farmer, C. G. (2015). Functional morphology of the Alligator mississippiensis larynx with implications for vocal production. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 218(7), 991-998.

Li Z, Clarke JA. New insight into the anatomy of the hyolingual apparatus of Alligator mississippiensis and implications for reconstructing feeding in extinct archosaurs. J Anat. 2015 Jul;227(1):45-61. doi: 10.1111/joa.12320. Epub 2015 May 28. PMID: 26018316; PMCID: PMC4475358.

Robert V. Hill, Michael D. D'Emic, G. S. Bever, Mark A. Norell, A complex hyobranchial apparatus in a Cretaceous dinosaur and the antiquity of avian paraglossalia, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 175, Issue 4, 1 December 2015, Pages 892–909, https://doi.org/10.1111/zoj.12293

Note: https://www.isca-speech.org/archive_v0/Interspeech_2018/pdfs/1080.pdf