Novel Quantification of Eggshell Surfaces in Dromaius novaehollandiae With Implications for the Fossil Eggshells of Oviraptorosauria (Dinosauria) [PDF]
Ecology and EvolutionThe external surfaces of non‐avian dinosaur eggs are not usually smooth like those of their avian descendants. Unique ornamentation patterns sculpt the exterior of the eggs, a trait that is difficult to interpret because of its scarcity in modern taxa ...
Joshua Hedge +2 more
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Cranial muscle reconstructions quantify adaptation for high bite forces in Oviraptorosauria [PDF]
Scientific Reports, 2022 Oviraptorosaurians are an unusual and probably herbivorous group of theropod dinosaurs that evolved pneumatised crania with robust, toothless jaws, apparently adapted for producing a strong bite.
Luke E. Meade, Waisum Ma
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A new two-fingered dinosaur sheds light on the radiation of Oviraptorosauria [PDF]
Royal Society Open Science, 2020 Late Cretaceous trends in Asian dinosaur diversity are poorly understood, but recent discoveries have documented a radiation of oviraptorosaur theropods in China and Mongolia.
Gregory F. Funston +5 more
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Forelimb reduction and digit loss were evolutionarily decoupled in oviraptorosaurian theropod dinosaurs [PDF]
Royal Society Open ScienceTheropod forelimbs exhibit wide morphological disparity, from the elongated wings of birds to the diminutive arms of T. rex. A wealth of work has sought to understand the evolution of bird flight via arm elongation, but despite widespread occurrences of ...
Amelia Mead +2 more
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Inner Ear Anatomy of Caenagnathidae (Theropoda: Oviraptorosauria) Emphasizes Mosaic Evolution of the Avian Neurosensory System. [PDF]
J Comp NeurolThe phylogenetic position of oviraptorosaurs close to birds makes them a key group for understanding the acquisition of avian senses. Here, we describe the first inner ear endocasts for caenagnathids, a major subclade of oviraptorosaurs, which demonstrates that labyrinth morphology varied more than expected within oviraptorosaurs.
Bazzana-Adams KD, Funston GF, Evans DC.
europepmc +2 more sources
The osteology of the wrist of Heyuannia huangi (Oviraptorosauria) and its implications for the wrist folding mechanism [PDF]
PeerJThe wrist of extant birds is highly specialized which permits folding of the forelimb in order to protect the pennaceous feathers when they are relaxed. This mechanism is absent in most non-avian theropods and is unknown in oviraptorosaurs because of the
Rui Qiu +6 more
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Cranial functional specialisation for strength precedes morphological evolution in Oviraptorosauria [PDF]
Communications BiologyOviraptorosaurians were a theropod dinosaur group that reached high diversity in the Late Cretaceous. Within oviraptorosaurians, the later diverging oviraptorids evolved distinctive crania which were extensively pneumatised, short and tall, and had a ...
Luke E. Meade +3 more
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Assesment and interpretation of negative forelimb allometry in the evolution of non-avian Theropoda [PDF]
Frontiers in Zoology, 2019 Background The origin of birds is marked by a significant decrease in body size along with an increase in relative forelimb size. However, before the evolution of flight, both traits may have already been related: It has been proposed that an ...
José A. Palma Liberona +3 more
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Diet of bird-like troodontid dinosaurs: synthesis of a contentious clade. [PDF]
Biol Rev Camb Philos SocABSTRACT Troodontidae is a clade of small‐to medium‐sized maniraptoran theropods that mainly lived in Laurasia (modern Asia, North America and Europe) during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and are believed to have had a variety of diets. The uniqueness of troodontid teeth suggests that they diverged from the typical flesh‐based diet of non‐avian ...
Fan YC, Miller CV, Pittman M.
europepmc +2 more sources
A new oviraptorosaur (Dinosauria: Oviraptorosauria) from the late cretaceous of southern China and its paleoecological implications. [PDF]
PLoS ONE, 2013 A new oviraptorosaur Nankangia jiangxiensis gen. et sp. nov. is described on the basis of a partial postcranial skeleton with a partial lower jaw collected from the Upper Cretaceous Nanxiong Formation of Ganzhou, in Jiangxi Province of southern China ...
Junchang Lü +3 more
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