Was it possible that Archosaurs the ancestors of dinosaurs breathed like modern day birds. Unlike mammals, birds have a one-way tube that allows airflow all through the respiratory system. Now it has been discovered that alligators, another member of the Archosaur group, also share this one –way breathing technique, meaning that it goes back at least 246 million years ago. This may have helped the ancestors of the dinosaurs to survive the Permian-Triassic extinction.

A bird’s breathe follows a one-way path through the lungs, which allows them to fly to high altitudes where the oxygen levels are lower. Consequently during the Permian-Triassic extinction oxygen levels were lower and animals with bird-like breathing techniques would have been better able to survive.Before the extinction when many species died off a group of animals known as Synapsids were dominant. Afterwards Archosaurs, to which dinosaurs belong, were the dominant group.