News Life

Alligators breathe like birds

Tricky measurements of flow reveal air moves through animal in one direction

By Lisa Grossman

- More than 2 years ago

Alligators have a one-way path for breathing that is similar to birds’, new research shows. The findings, published in the Jan. 15 Science, could explain how  dinosaurs’ ancestors rose to prominence.

TAKES BREATH AWAY En route through an alligator’s lungs (shown on CT scan), air skips the first bronchial branch (green) and flows through the second (blue), then moves through smaller parabronchi (light brown arrows) into the first branch and out of the body.