Blog Post Image: The Mystery of Lizard Breath

A monitor lizard hugs a branch. A new University of Utah study found that air flows mostly in a one-way loop through the lungs of savannah monitor lizards, just as it does in birds, alligators and presumably dinosaurs. The discovery means this unusual one-way airflow may have evolved 270 million years ago – 100 million years before birds first flew. Photo Credit: © Cheryl A. Ertelt