Paravian Phylogeny and the Dinosaur-Bird Transition: An Overview [PDF]
Frontiers in Earth Science, 2019 Recent years witnessed the discovery of a great diversity of early birds as well as closely related non-avian theropods, which modified previous conceptions about the origin of birds and their flight. We here present a review of the taxonomic composition
Federico L. Agnolin +10 more
doaj +3 more sources
Decoupling body shape and mass distribution in birds and their dinosaurian ancestors. [PDF]
Nat Commun, 2023 Macaulay S +7 more
europepmc +3 more sources
Probabilistic divergence time estimation without branch lengths: dating the origins of dinosaurs, avian flight and crown birds. [PDF]
Biol Lett, 2016 Branch lengths—measured in character changes—are an essential requirement of clock-based divergence estimation, regardless of whether the fossil calibrations used represent nodes or tips.
Lloyd GT +3 more
europepmc +9 more sources
Evolutionary and ontogenetic changes of the anatomical organization and modularity in the skull of archosaurs. [PDF]
Sci Rep, 2020 Comparative anatomy studies of the skull of archosaurs provide insights on the mechanisms of evolution for the morphologically and functionally diverse species of crocodiles and birds.
Lee HW, Esteve-Altava B, Abzhanov A.
europepmc +3 more sources
Re-evaluation of the Haarlem Archaeopteryx and the radiation of maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs. [PDF]
BMC Evol Biol, 2017 Archaeopteryx is an iconic fossil that has long been pivotal for our understanding of the origin of birds. Remains of this important taxon have only been found in the Late Jurassic lithographic limestones of Bavaria, Germany.
Foth C, Rauhut OWM.
europepmc +4 more sources
Novel Quantification of Eggshell Surfaces in <i>Dromaius novaehollandiae</i> With Implications for the Fossil Eggshells of Oviraptorosauria (Dinosauria). [PDF]
Ecol EvolWe have developed a new, quantitative method of assessing the variation on paleosurfaces. This method uses functions from the molaR package of R, including new functions detailed here. This paper tests the functions on the eggshell surfaces of extant emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) and fossil oviraptorosaur eggs of the ootaxon Macroelongatoolithus ...
Hedge J, Bender E, Zanno LE.
europepmc +2 more sources
BMC Biology, 2022 Background Birds are key indicator species in extant ecosystems, and thus we would expect extinct birds to provide insights into the nature of ancient ecosystems. However, many aspects of extinct bird ecology, particularly their diet, remain obscure. One
Case Vincent Miller +4 more
doaj +1 more source
Cautionary tales on the use of proxies to estimate body size and form of extinct animals. [PDF]
Ecol EvolReconstructing the body size and form of extinct animals is of vital importance to our understanding of macroevolution and palaeontology. This is often done using anatomical proxies where extinct species are known only from fragmentary remains. However, there are many limitations influencing the selection of proxy taxa that are frequently overlooked ...
Gayford JH +7 more
europepmc +2 more sources
A new paravian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America supports a late acquisition of avian flight [PDF]
PeerJ, 2019 The last two decades have seen a remarkable increase in the known diversity of basal avialans and their paravian relatives. The lack of resolution in the relationships of these groups combined with attributing the behavior of specialized taxa to the base
Scott Hartman +5 more
doaj +2 more sources
Against unifying homology concepts: Redirecting the debate
Journal of Morphology, Volume 284, Issue 7, July 2023., 2023 Against traditional attempts to theoretically unify the various homology definitions on offer, we put forward the alternative strategy of retaining what is distinctive in various homology conceptualizations as context‐specific research tools. While Lankester's evolutionary construal of homology keeps being misinterpreted, we uncover his mechanistic ...
Devin Y. Gouvêa, Ingo Brigandt
wiley +1 more source