Early evolution of the biological bird: perspectives from new fossil discoveries in China

O’Connor, Jingmai K.; Zhou, Zhonghe

doi:10.1007/s10336-015-1222-5

Cited by 44 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…elongated minor metacarpal, Y-shaped furcula, and straight scapula in Enantiornithes; keeled sternum, expanded proximal phalanx of major digit, modern-shaped pygostyle, and triosseal canal in Ornithuromorpha [8,12,17,18,53]. Such rapid evolutionary rates may have built an adaptive advantage that opened up new niches and ultimately led to greater diversity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these studies focused on single continuous measures (limb proportions and body size), or contained limited numbers of Mesozoic avian taxa, insufficient for exploring detailed features of early bird evolution. Over the past three decades, our understanding of early avian evolution has been greatly advanced by discoveries from Mesozoic localities, particularly the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Biota [8][9][10]. These exquisitely preserved Early Cretaceous bird fossils have narrowed the large morphological gap between the iconic 'Urvogel' Archaeopteryx and living birds, and importantly indicate that many morphological features once considered unique to crown birds had already evolved in stem-group taxa only slightly younger than Archaeopteryx [8,[11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over the past three decades, our understanding of early avian evolution has been greatly advanced by discoveries from Mesozoic localities, particularly the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Biota [8][9][10]. These exquisitely preserved Early Cretaceous bird fossils have narrowed the large morphological gap between the iconic 'Urvogel' Archaeopteryx and living birds, and importantly indicate that many morphological features once considered unique to crown birds had already evolved in stem-group taxa only slightly younger than Archaeopteryx [8,[11][12][13]. For instance, the long-bony tail characteristic of non-avian theropods ( plesiomorphically retained in Archaeopteryx and Jeholornis) has been abbreviated and replaced by a pygostyle in Confuciusornithiformes and Sapeornithiformes [14][15][16]; derived features present in crown-group birds, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rates of morphological evolution are heterogeneous in Early Cretaceous birds

Wang

Lloyd

2016

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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The Early Cretaceous is a critical interval in the early history of birds. Exceptional fossils indicate that important evolutionary novelties such as a pygostyle and a keeled sternum had already arisen in Early Cretaceous taxa, bridging much of the morphological gap between Archaeopteryx and crown birds. However, detailed features of basal bird evolution remain obscure because of both the small sample of fossil taxa previously considered and a lack of quantitative studies assessing rates of morphological evolution. Here we apply a recently available phylogenetic method and associated sensitivity tests to a large data matrix of morphological characters to quantify rates of morphological evolution in Early Cretaceous birds. Our results reveal that although rates were highly heterogeneous between different Early Cretaceous avian lineages, consistent patterns of significantly high or low rates were harder to pinpoint. Nevertheless, evidence for accelerated evolutionary rates is strongest at the point when Ornithuromorpha (the clade comprises all extant birds and descendants from their most recent common ancestors) split from Enantiornithes (a diverse clade that went extinct at the end-Cretaceous), consistent with the hypothesis that this key split opened up new niches and ultimately led to greater diversity for these two dominant clades of Mesozoic birds.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rates of morphological evolution are heterogeneous in Early Cretaceous birds

Wang

Lloyd

2016

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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“…Asian subsampled diversity peaks in the Aptian, Campanian, and Maastrichtian might be explained by a Lagerstätten 'bonanza' effect, especially considering the high quality preservation deposits discovered and heavily sampled in the last 20 years (e.g. Liaoning) (Lloyd et al, 2008;Zhou & Wang, 2010;Godefroit et al, 2013;O'Connor & Zhou, 2015;Tennant et al, 2016), although coverage remains only moderate (around 0.5) in each of these intervals (Fig. 10).…”

Section: Theropodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How has our knowledge of dinosaur diversity through geologic time changed through research history?

Chiarenza¹,

Baron²

2017

Preprint

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Assessments of dinosaur macroevolution at any given time can be biased by the historical publication record. Recent studies have analysed patterns in dinosaur diversity that are based on secular variations in the numbers of published taxa. Many of these have employed a range of approaches that account for changes in the shape of the taxonomic abundance curve, which are largely dependent on databases compiled from the primary published literature. However, how these 'corrected' diversity patterns are influenced by the history of publication remains largely unknown. Here, we investigate the influence of publication history between 1991 and 2015 on our understanding of dinosaur evolution using raw diversity estimates and shareholder quorum subsampling for the three major subgroups: Ornithischia, Sauropodomorpha, and Theropoda. We find that, while sampling generally improves through time, there remain periods and regions in dinosaur evolutionary history where diversity estimates are highly volatile (e.g. the latest Jurassic of Europe, the mid-Cretaceous of North America, and the Late Cretaceous of South America). Our results show that historical changes in database compilation can often substantially influence our interpretations of dinosaur diversity. 'Global' estimates of diversity based on the fossil record are often also based on incomplete, and distinct regional signals, each subject to their own sampling history. Changes in the record of taxon abundance distribution, either through discovery of new taxa or addition of existing taxa to improve sampling evenness, are important in improving the reliability of our interpretations of dinosaur diversity. Furthermore, the number of occurrences and newly identified dinosaurs is still rapidly increasing through time, suggesting that it is entirely possible for much of what we know about dinosaurs at the present to change within the next 20 years. Subjects Evolutionary Studies, PaleontologyChao A, Jost L. 2012. Coverage-based rarefaction and extrapolation: standardizing samples by completeness rather than size. Ecology 93 (12):

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“…Certain authors offer rather several alternatives for the origin of birds (James and Pourtless 2009) and the origin of feathers (Feduccia 2012). Most of the recent papers on the assembly of the avian body plan ignore non-dinosaur hypotheses for the origin of birds (e.g., Bhullar et al 2012;Brusatte et al 2014;Puttick et al 2014;O'Connor and Zhou 2015;Nesbitt et al 2017;Sullivan et al 2017;Cau 2018) unequivocal flight feathers are described as theropod dinosaurs (e.g., Hu et al 2018;Rauhut et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hypothesis: Avian flight originated in arboreal archosaurs gliding on membranous wings

Bajdek

Sulej

2018

Preprint

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The oldest feathers known to date have been found in archosaurs capable of flight. However, some of them (scansoriopterygids) flew by the use of a membrane rather than feathers. We therefore propose a new mechanism for the origin of avian flight by the use of membranous wings on both the forelimbs and the hindlimbs. It complements Beebe’s (1915) prediction of the tetrapteryx stage. Paleontological and embryological evidence suggest that feathers are a modification of reptilian scales. Scansoriopterygids were covered mostly by down-like feathers which seemingly acted as thermal isolation rather than being adapted for flight. Certain early birds, including scansoriopterygids, possessed elongate shafted tail feathers, which were probably used principally for display and resembled elongate scales. We suppose that display is the primary function of early feathers, which were preadapted for thermal isolation and also flight. The body of theropods was covered mostly by typical reptilian scales, yet some ornithischian dinosaurs possessed filamentous integumentary structures which might have had a comparable display function. However, it is doubtful that these structures in dinosaurs were homologous with avian feathers. Early birds probably shared with theropod dinosaurs an incipient endothermy, which was inherited from their common ancestor in the Triassic Period.

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Early evolution of the biological bird: perspectives from new fossil discoveries in China

Cited by 44 publications

References 48 publications

Rates of morphological evolution are heterogeneous in Early Cretaceous birds

Rates of morphological evolution are heterogeneous in Early Cretaceous birds

How has our knowledge of dinosaur diversity through geologic time changed through research history?

Hypothesis: Avian flight originated in arboreal archosaurs gliding on membranous wings

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