This Nearly 300-Million-Year-Old Mummified Reptile Reveals the Evolutionary Origins of How We Breathe

This Nearly 300-Million-Year-Old Mummified Reptile Reveals the Evolutionary Origins of How We Breathe

Unusually well-preserved fossils have provided the earliest known evidence of a land vertebrate that could pump air in and out of its chest using muscles between the ribs—the same strategy used by modern mammals, reptiles and birds

A 300-million-year-old mummy reveals how we first learned to breathe

Every time you breathe, you are using a system that evolved hundreds of millions of years ago. The simple act of your chest expanding and contracting—pulling air into your lungs—is something we rarely think about. But a remarkable fossil discovery is now helping scientists understand when this breathing system first appeared. Researchers have studied a […] The post A 300-million-year-old mummy reveals how we first learned to breathe appeared fir…