Early Cretaceous anti-bird restoration map (drawn by Zhang Zongda)
CT restoration of anti-birds in the Early Cretaceous (photo courtesy of Wang Min)
June 23, "Nature - Communications" published Chinese Kexue Yuan findings about the evolution of primitive bird skulls of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
June 23, "Nature - Communications" published Chinese Kexue Yuan findings about the evolution of primitive bird skulls of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
In a way, the beak is like the hand of other vertebrates
The research team of the Institute of Ancient Spine performed high-precision CT scanning and reconstruction of an anti-bird juvenile individual 120 million years ago, and performed three-dimensional restoration of almost all the skull bones, especially the bones that constitute the mobility channel of the skull
The restoration of the palatal area of the anti-bird shows that its basal sphenoid bone-parasphenoid bone and theropod dinosaurs, such as Deinonychus and Linghe Raptor, have developed basal pterygoid processes, which are related to the pterygoid bones.
At the same time, the medial surface of the square bone does not develop articular processes related to the pterygoid bone
This study clearly shows that the mobility of modern bird skulls does not develop in anti-birds, and this progressive feature only appears in groups closer to the crown group
This work proposes that the evolution of the mobility of bird skulls has undergone four important transitions: the pterygoid bone and the square bone are directly related in the way of ankle joints; the square bone branch of the pterygoid bone, the base pterygoid process, and the outer pterygoid bone Degradation occurs; these transitions may have occurred in the early groups of the present-day avian species
This research was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Frontier Science Key Research Program from the "0 to 1" Original Innovation Ten-Year Selection Project and the Basic Science Center Project "Craton Destruction and Terrestrial Biological Evolution"
Related paper information: https://doi.
https://doi.
org/ 10.
1038/s41467-021-24147-z
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