Abstract: Here we investigate the size and morphology of the gastral basket in non-neornithine Mesozoic birds and their close non-avian dinosaur relatives. The size of the gastral basket reportedly increases with body size in the Theropoda. However, contra earlier reports basal birds appear to have proportionately large gastral baskets compared to non-avian theropods, suggesting gastralia may have functioned as a compensatory feature for muscle attachment in the absence of a craniocaudally extensive sternum. As in crocodilians, the proximal row of gastralia in basal birds articulates with the sternum when present suggesting the two features may have functioned as a unit; this hypothesis is not supported by any scars to indicate the gastralia served as points of muscle attachment. Alternatively, the large size of the gastral basket may be related to its respiratory function and the high oxygen demands of powered flight in birds. Due to incomplete preservation of these delicate elements as a unit, sample size is too low to draw significant results from statistical analysis of this element.