Dinosaur Lungs

["Louis Varricchio" <varricch@aero.und.edu>]

Interesting question about dinosaur lung capacity, Elton!  (If I follow you
correctly.)

I sure don't know the answer to this question (do we have any idea of the
size of average dinosaur lungs?  I know we know brains pan sizes based on
skull cases, so I assume rib cages determine lung size when looking at a
fossil?  My cousin, Dave Varricchio, Ph.D. is a paleontologist at Montana
State--I'll ask him if I can find his e-mail address!  He discovered a
species of Moroccan dinosaur two years ago; was pictured in National
Geographic magazine last year or the year before.)  

No matter, I'll also ask one of our expert aerospace faculty about it (UND 
has a state-of-the-art high-altitude test chamber on campus; I'll ask the
professor who works with our aviation students.  I know he'll have data on 
human lung physiology--but dinosaur lungs would be out of his ballpark.  It
would still be a reference point.  It will take a while so don't expect an
immediate answer.

Ciao,

Lou



LOUIS VARRICCHIO
Environmental Information Specialist/Research Associate
 Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium
 Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences
 University of North Dakota
 Grand Forks, N.D. 58202-9007
   Phone: 701-777-2482
   Fax: 701-777-2940
   E-mail: varricch@umac.org (in N.D.)
              morbius@together.net (in Vt.)

"Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get."--Robert Heinlein 

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