Balancing a Sauropod
The Physiology of a Dinosaur
- 1st Edition - October 31, 2024
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Author: Brant E Isakson
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 8 2 3 3 0 3 - 0
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 8 2 3 4 1 9 - 8
One completely unexplored area in terms of physiology is the era of dinosaurs—with good reason, they lived over 100 million years ago and we’re left to make inference based on fo… Read more
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Request a sales quoteOne completely unexplored area in terms of physiology is the era of dinosaurs—with good reason, they lived over 100 million years ago and we’re left to make inference based on fossilized bones. However, by merging classical, comparative, and extreme physiology and applying it to current paleontological knowledge of dinosaurs, Balancing a Sauropod: The Physiology of a Dinosaur will for the first time begin to provide a sound physiological underpinning for how they may have lived 100 million years ago.
Sauropods were the largest land animals to ever walk the earth with an incredible distance from heart to brain, begging the question, how did they maintain blood flow in their brain? Also, the climate sauropods lived in was hypoxic compared to what we live in now, so how did the dinosaurs breathe in the hypoxic Jurassic era? These questions and others expand to multiple fascinating questions the book will dissect in order of organ systems.
The topics focus on major organ systems and apply them to potential sauropod physiology. Less emphasis is given to the skeletal system, as that has been discussed extensively in other literature. Each organ system will be discussed in terms of function and current understanding of how they work in a comparative environment. Balancing a Sauropod: The Physiology of a Dinosaur is written at a technical level to both inform the lay reader and provide a sound argument to scientists in the field.
Sauropods were the largest land animals to ever walk the earth with an incredible distance from heart to brain, begging the question, how did they maintain blood flow in their brain? Also, the climate sauropods lived in was hypoxic compared to what we live in now, so how did the dinosaurs breathe in the hypoxic Jurassic era? These questions and others expand to multiple fascinating questions the book will dissect in order of organ systems.
The topics focus on major organ systems and apply them to potential sauropod physiology. Less emphasis is given to the skeletal system, as that has been discussed extensively in other literature. Each organ system will be discussed in terms of function and current understanding of how they work in a comparative environment. Balancing a Sauropod: The Physiology of a Dinosaur is written at a technical level to both inform the lay reader and provide a sound argument to scientists in the field.
- Introduces how a dinosaur utilized its complete organ system to function physiologically as an animal
- Discusses how the once-dominant sauropod could have come to specialize and adapt at the physiological level to the Jurassic environment
- Explores extreme physiologies
Academics in Environmental or Extreme Physiology, as well as scientists and lecturers interested in Physiology, Students and Instructors in Comparative, Environmental, and Extreme Physiology courses
- Balancing a Sauropod
- Cover image
- Title page
- Table of Contents
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Introduction
- Chapter One What do we know about the sauropods?
- Abstract
- Keywords
- Standing on the shoulders of giants
- No bones about it—What is a fossil?
- Ologies
- How is a sauropod the same or different?
- Sauropods, lighter than air
- Heads or tails…or neck and tails
- Taking a bite out of the sauropod
- Sauropod short ribs
- Growing-up sauropod
- Giant shoes to fill
- References and further reading
- Chapter Two The environment of the sauropod and its physiology
- Abstract
- Keywords
- Back in time
- What’s shaking?…Everything
- Welcome to sea world
- Changing temperatures
- New menu changes
- Changing habitats = changes to the menu = changes to physiology
- Body size
- Even sauropods get sick
- Social habits
- Thick-skinned sauropods
- Moving the herd forward…
- References and further reading
- Chapter Three The sauropod's deep breath
- Abstract
- Keywords
- The sauropod’s red blood cell
- Acids and bases
- Oxygen absorption in an oxygen-poor environment
- How did the sauropods get that oxygen off the curve?
- Putting the sauropod respiratory system together
- References and further reading
- Chapter Four Moving blood through a sauropod: The vasculature
- Abstract
- Keywords
- The power of two…or three
- Organizing the vasculature
- Pressuring the resistance to flow
- The vasculature under pressure
- Gravity, the sauropods vascular foe
- The brain, under pressure
- The siphon theory of sauropod blood flow up the neck
- Valve hypothesis of sauropod blood flow up the neck
- Other possible vascular adaptions for the sauropod
- The vasculature and heart acting together
- References and further reading
- Chapter Five At the heart of the sauropod
- Abstract
- Keywords
- I heart the sauropod
- The sauropod heart
- Blood pressure and the sauropod
- The cardiac output from the sauropod heart, part 1—Heart rate
- The cardiac output from the sauropod heart, part 2—Stroke volume
- Sauropod tension in the heart
- Putting the cardiovascular system together
- Other possible heart adaptations
- References and further reading
- Chapter Six Ideas on sauropod kidneys and digestion
- Abstract
- Keywords
- The kidneys part 1: Filtration and water regulation the nephron
- The kidney 2: Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system
- The kidney 3: Even more roles for this organ
- The kidney 4: Giraffe adaptions = sauropod adaptions?
- The kidney 5: Further adaptions for water conservation
- The kidney 6: Devolving the kidney; was the sauropods kidney just less complex?
- Reniculate kidneys: A possible indicator of sauropod environment?
- Metabolism 1: Extracting the energy
- Metabolism 2: Everything come out ok?
- Metabolism 3: The sauropod energy
- Metabolism 4: Storing the sauropod energy
- References and further reading
- Chapter Seven Balancing the sauropod
- Abstract
- Keywords
- Hypothesis: Sauropods had small, nucleated red blood cells
- Hypothesis: Sauropods had avian lungs extending up the neck
- Hypothesis: Sauropods had low-resistance, high-pressure arteries like a giraffe
- Hypothesis: The sauropod had a smooth four-chamber heart that was hypertrophied
- Hypothesis: Sauropods had a metanephros kidney akin to modern-day reptiles
- Hypothesis: The sauropod was a hind-gut fermenter with an extensive digestive track
- What does a sauropod think of this?
- Did the sauropod even lift its head; that is, should the neck be raised?
- Why did they fall at the end of the Jurassic?
- The many unknown unknowns of sauropod physiology…
- References and further reading
- Index
- Edition: 1
- Published: October 31, 2024
- Imprint: Academic Press
- No. of pages: 200
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN: 9780128233030
- eBook ISBN: 9780128234198
BI
Brant E Isakson
Dr. Brant Isakson is a tenured professor of molecular physiology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He teaches medical school students vascular physiology as well as the PhD students graduate physiology and extreme physiology courses. His research disciplines include physiology, translational science, cardiovascular biology, metabolism, and molecular pharmacology. Dr. Isakson has published more than 150 scholarly manuscripts in top-tier journals and serves on several editorial boards. He’s exceptionally well-trained in reading, interpreting, teaching, and writing about the physiological properties of animals. The proposed book does not take on paleontology in the classic sense but uses extreme physiology to examine the potential fascinating extreme physiology of sauropods.
Affiliations and expertise
Professor of Molecular Physiology, University of Virginia, USARead Balancing a Sauropod on ScienceDirect