Intraskeletal histovariability, allometric growth patterns, and their functional implications in bird-like dinosaurs

With their elongated forelimbs and variable aerial skills, paravian dinosaurs, a clade also comprising modern birds, are in the hotspot of vertebrate evolutionary research. Inferences on the early evolution of flight largely rely on bone and feather morphology, while osteohistological traits are usu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2018-01, Vol.8 (1), p.258-258, Article 258
Main Authors: Prondvai, Edina, Godefroit, Pascal, Adriaens, Dominique, Hu, Dong-Yu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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631/181/414
704/158/857
Birds
Bones
Dinosaurs
Flight
Growth patterns
Histology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Isometric
Life history
Morphology
multidisciplinary
Museums
Ontogeny
Paleontology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:With their elongated forelimbs and variable aerial skills, paravian dinosaurs, a clade also comprising modern birds, are in the hotspot of vertebrate evolutionary research. Inferences on the early evolution of flight largely rely on bone and feather morphology, while osteohistological traits are usually studied to explore life-history characteristics. By sampling and comparing multiple homologous fore- and hind limb elements, we integrate for the first time qualitative and quantitative osteohistological approaches to get insight into the intraskeletal growth dynamics and their functional implications in five paravian dinosaur taxa, Anchiornis , Aurornis , Eosinopteryx , Serikornis , and Jeholornis . Our qualitative assessment implies a considerable diversity in allometric/isometric growth patterns among these paravians. Quantitative analyses show that neither taxa nor homologous elements have characteristic histology, and that ontogenetic stage, element size and the newly introduced relative element precocity only partially explain the diaphyseal histovariability. Still, Jeholornis , the only avialan studied here, is histologically distinct from all other specimens in the multivariate visualizations raising the hypothesis that its bone tissue characteristics may be related to its superior aerial capabilities compared to the non-avialan paravians. Our results warrant further research on the osteohistological correlates of flight and developmental strategies in birds and bird-like dinosaurs.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-18218-9