Was dinosaurian physiology inherited by birds? Reconciling slow growth in archaeopteryx. [PDF]
PLoS ONE, 2009 Archaeopteryx is the oldest and most primitive known bird (Avialae). It is believed that the growth and energetic physiology of basalmost birds such as Archaeopteryx were inherited in their entirety from non-avialan dinosaurs.
Gregory M Erickson +6 more
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From Highways to Biological Collections: Plastination of Wild Animals Victims of Roadkill in the Sooretama Biological Reserve, Brazil [PDF]
Brazilian Archives of Biology and TechnologyRoadkill is one of the most direct impacts on fauna, leading to numerous direct and indirect impacts. Road-killed animals could serve as a resource for research and teaching purposes, but first, they need to have their tissues preserved by some technique.
Marcos Vinícius Freitas Silva +8 more
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The phylogenetic affinities of the bizarre Late Cretaceous Romanian theropod Balaur bondoc (Dinosauria, Maniraptora): dromaeosaurid or flightless bird? [PDF]
PeerJ, 2015 The exceptionally well-preserved Romanian dinosaur Balaur bondoc is the most complete theropod known to date from the Upper Cretaceous of Europe. Previous studies of this remarkable taxon have included its phylogenetic interpretation as an aberrant ...
Andrea Cau, Tom Brougham, Darren Naish
doaj +3 more sources
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
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
Shake a tail feather: the evolution of the theropod tail into a stiff aerodynamic surface. [PDF]
PLoS ONE, 2013 Theropod dinosaurs show striking morphological and functional tail variation; e.g., a long, robust, basal theropod tail used for counterbalance, or a short, modern avian tail used as an aerodynamic surface.
Michael Pittman +4 more
doaj +2 more sources
PLoS ONE, 2011 BackgroundTroodontids are a predominantly small-bodied group of feathered theropod dinosaurs notable for their close evolutionary relationship with Avialae. Despite a diverse Asian representation with remarkable growth in recent years, the North American
Lindsay E Zanno +4 more
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Review of the tetrapod skull-neck boundary: implications for the evolution of the atlas-axis complex. [PDF]
Biol Rev Camb Philos SocABSTRACT This review describes variation in modern and fossil occiput–atlas–axis complex anatomy of total group Tetrapoda with the aim of documenting the range of structural variation throughout their evolutionary history to establish grounds for comparison of the complex between tetrapod clades.
Korneisel DE, Maddin HC.
europepmc +2 more sources
Reconstructing locomotor ecology of extinct avialans: a case study of <i>Ichthyornis</i> comparing sternum morphology and skeletal proportions. [PDF]
Proc Biol Sci, 2023 Avian skeletal morphology is associated with locomotor function, including flight style, swimming and terrestrial locomotion, and permits informed inferences on locomotion in extinct taxa.
Lowi-Merri TM +6 more
europepmc +2 more sources
The evolution of femoral morphology in giant non-avian theropod dinosaurs. [PDF]
PaleobiologyNon-technical Summary Theropods are bipedal dinosaurs that appeared 230 million years ago and are still extant as birds. Their history is characterized by extreme variations in body mass, with gigantism evolving independently and on several occasions ...
Pintore R +4 more
europepmc +2 more sources