oxygen
Avian Respiration Birds have evolved a respiratory system that enables them to fly. Flying is a high-energy process and requires a lot of oxygen. Furthermore, many birds fly in high altitudes where the concentration of oxygen in low. How did birds evolve a respiratory system that is so unique? Decades of research by paleontologists have shown that birds evolved from therapods, meat-eating dinosaurs Figure 39.14 . In fact, fossil evidence shows that meat-eating dinosaurs that lived more than 100 million years ago had a similar flow-through respiratory system with lungs and air sacs. Archaeopteryx and Xiaotingia, for example, were flying dinosaurs and are believed to be early precursors of birds.