Dinosaurs are asked to rethink bird evolution


Fujianvenator prodigiosus – The oldest bird-like dinosaur to date from the Jurassic period. Ann. Reg. Phys. Lett. 61, 268 (2016)

One hundred and fifty million years ago, a young, huge, bird-like dinosaur became trapped in a swamp in what is now southeastern China and died. Its fossilized remains, unearthed in 2022 and named Fujianvenator prodigiosus, show it to be one of the earliest bird-like dinosaurs to date from the Jurassic period. In the paper published today, the researchers describe their discovery.

Chiappe, Ji, S.A., Ji, Q. and Norell were part of a group that studied theropods from northeastern China. Am. Bull. It was Mus. Nat. Hist. 242, 1–89 (1999).

Persons, W. S. & Currie, P. J. An approach to scoring cursorial limb proportions in carnivorous dinosaurs and an attempt to account for allometry. Sci. Rep. 6, 19828 (2016).

The origin of the bird’s hand, digit loss, and development variability are all related to the frame shift. There is a word for it. Dev. 13, 269–279 (2011).

The Haarlem Archaeopteryx and radiation of the maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs: a new specimen from the boundary of Schamhaupten, Bavaria

Comparisons and implications are provided in the tbetrate of the early and middle Jehol Biota. Palaeoworld 26, 241–252 (2017).

Rauhut, O. W., Foth, C. & Tischlinger, H. The oldest Archaeopteryx (Theropoda: Avialiae): a new specimen from the Kimmeridgian/Tithonian boundary of Schamhaupten, Bavaria. PeerJ 6, e4191 (2018).

Goloboff, P. A. and Pol, D. The impact of unstable taxa in coeluradourian phylogeny was studied. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 440, 97–115 (2020).

The Early Dinosaur maniraptoran was read by O’Connor and Sullivan. The scansoriopterygids are the same species as the oviraptorosaurs. Vertebr. Palasiat. 52, 3–30 (2014).

Manning, Hedrick, Lynch, Cordero, and Dodson study the geometry of taking flight in theropods. J. Morphol. 276, 152–166 (2014).

Stoessel, A., Kilbourne, B. M. & Fischer, M. S. Morphological integration versus ecological plasticity in the avian pelvic limb skeleton. J. Morphol. 274, 483–495 (2013).

Zheng, X. et al. On the absence of sternal elements in Anchiornis and the complex early evolution of the avian sternum. It was Proc. There is a Natl Acad. USA 114, 13900–13905.

The Haarlem Archaeopteryx and the radiation of maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs were re-examined. BMC Evol. 17, 236 was written on 17th of August.

M., Henderson, D M., and Currie had work that looked at the evolution of theropods on the line to birds. PeerJ 9, e10855 (2021).

A juvenile coelurosaurian theropod is from China and shows arboreal habits. The Naturwissenschaften 89 was published in 2002.

Christiansen, P. Locomotion in terrestrial mammals: the influence of body mass, limb length and bone proportions on speed. Zool, that’s what. J. Linn. 136, and 714 were published in 2002.

Phylogenetic uncertainty in the early-Middle Jurassic Caadón Asfalto Formation and implications for paleo-Pacific plate subduction

Zhao, J., Qiu, J. & Liu, L. Early–Middle Jurassic magmatic rocks along the coastal region of southeastern China: petrogenesis and implications for paleo-Pacific plate subduction. J Asian EarthSci. 1067 was published in 2021.

Zhu, R., Zhou, Z. & Meng, Q. Destruction of the North China Craton and its influence on surface geology and terrestrial biotas. Chin. Sci. Bull. 65, 2954 (2020).

Y., Liu, and other related people. The Trans-North China Orogen has melt-peridotite interactions caused by Continental and oceanic crust recycling. J. Petrol. 51, 537–571 (2009).

A review of the phylogenetic relationships of theropods Unenlagiidae, Microraptoria and Anchiornis was written by Agnolin and Novas.

Yang, Z. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic estimation from DNA sequences with variable rates over sites: approximate methods. The J.Mol. Evol. 39 was published in 1994.

Zhang, C., Stadler, T., Klopfstein, S., Heath, T. A. & Ronquist, F. Total-evidence dating under the fossilized birth–death process. There’s a system called the Syst. The book is titled Biol. 65, and it was published in 2015.

Rauhut, O. W. M. & Pol, D. Probable basal allosauroid from the early Middle Jurassic Cañadón Asfalto Formation of Argentina highlights phylogenetic uncertainty in tetanuran theropod dinosaurs. Sci. Rep. 9, 18826 (2019).

Source: A new avialan theropod from an emerging Jurassic terrestrial fauna

Discovery of a Late-Jurassic Bird-like Dinosaur is a Manifestation of Anatomy and Lifestyle in the Group of Birds

A package for estimation and inference of allometric lines was created by Warton, Duursma and others. Methods Ecol. Evol. 3 was published in 2012

“This is really a weird animal within the group of birds,” says Mark Loewen, a palaeontologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, who was not involved in the discovery.

But it didn’t have many modifications that would contribute to flight. It had short shoulder blade and specialized fingers that are for grabbing. The bird’s hind legs are hyper-elongated, which means the lower leg bone is twice as long as the thigh bone. Bhart-Anjan says that such long legs indicate a very skilled runner like the roadrunner.

There was a stroke of luck about the discovery of the dinosaur. There has been no dinosaurs found before near the site where the fossil was discovered. An example of late-Jurassic bird-like dinosaurs are rare due to their hollow bones being less well preserved. Fossilization needs ideal conditions such as a lack of oxygen to prevent decay, provided by lakes or swamps.

He says there are many things left to be discovered. “We’ve only scratched the surface of the anatomical and lifestyle diversity of these animals.”