Fred Ruhe
Well-known member
Min Wang, Thomas A. Stidham, Zhiheng Li, Xing Xu & Zhonghe Zhou, 2021
Cretaceous bird with dinosaur skull sheds light on avian cranial evolution
Nature Communications. 12: Article number 3890.
doi:10.1038/s41467-021-24147-z
Abstract and free pdf: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24147-z.pdf
The transformation of the bird skull from an ancestral akinetic, heavy, and toothed dinosaurian morphology to a highly derived, lightweight, edentulous, and kinetic skull is an innovation as significant as powered flight and feathers. Our understanding of evolutionary assembly of the modern form and function of avian cranium has been impeded by the rarity of early bird fossils with well-preserved skulls. Here, we describe a new enantiornithine bird from the Early Cretaceous of China that preserves a nearly complete skull including the palatal elements, exposing the components of cranial kinesis. Our three-dimensional reconstruction of the entire enantiornithine skull demonstrates that this bird has an akinetic skull indicated by the unexpected retention of the plesiomorphic dinosaurian palate and diapsid temporal configurations, capped with a derived avialan rostrum and cranial roof, highlighting the highly modular and mosaic evolution of the avialan skull.
Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24147-z.
Enjoy,
Fred
Cretaceous bird with dinosaur skull sheds light on avian cranial evolution
Nature Communications. 12: Article number 3890.
doi:10.1038/s41467-021-24147-z
Abstract and free pdf: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24147-z.pdf
The transformation of the bird skull from an ancestral akinetic, heavy, and toothed dinosaurian morphology to a highly derived, lightweight, edentulous, and kinetic skull is an innovation as significant as powered flight and feathers. Our understanding of evolutionary assembly of the modern form and function of avian cranium has been impeded by the rarity of early bird fossils with well-preserved skulls. Here, we describe a new enantiornithine bird from the Early Cretaceous of China that preserves a nearly complete skull including the palatal elements, exposing the components of cranial kinesis. Our three-dimensional reconstruction of the entire enantiornithine skull demonstrates that this bird has an akinetic skull indicated by the unexpected retention of the plesiomorphic dinosaurian palate and diapsid temporal configurations, capped with a derived avialan rostrum and cranial roof, highlighting the highly modular and mosaic evolution of the avialan skull.
Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24147-z.
Enjoy,
Fred
