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Birds Have Peramorphic Skulls, Too: Anatomical Network Analyses Reveal Oppositional Heterochronies in Avian Skull Evolution by Plateau, Olivia; Foth, Christian is a Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology article available to read on EtoBox.

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In contrast to the vast majority of reptiles, the skulls of adult crown birds are characterized by a high degree of integration due to bone fusion, e.g., an ontogenetic event generating a net reduction in the number of bones. To understand this process in an evolutionary context, we investigate postnatal ontogenetic changes in the skulls of crown bird and non-avian theropods using anatomical network analysis (__AnNA__). Due to the greater number of bones and bone contacts, early juvenile crown birds have less integrated skulls, resembling their non-avian theropod ancestors, including __Archaeopteryx lithographica__ and __Ichthyornis dispars__. Phylogenetic comparisons indicate that skull bone fusion and the resulting modular integration represent a peramorphosis (developmental exaggeration of the ancestral adult trait) that evolved late during avialan evolution, at the origin of crown-birds. Succeeding the general paedomorphic shape trend, the occurrence of an additional peramorphosis reflects the mosaic complexity of the avian skull evolution.

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Author

Plateau, Olivia; Foth, Christian

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC; [London]: Springer Nature, 2018-; Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc. (ISSN 2399-3642)

Published

2020

Language

EN

Field

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)