Publication Date:
2014-08-02
Description:
Recent discoveries have highlighted the dramatic evolutionary transformation of massive, ground-dwelling theropod dinosaurs into light, volant birds. Here, we apply Bayesian approaches (originally developed for inferring geographic spread and rates of molecular evolution in viruses) in a different context: to infer size changes and rates of anatomical innovation (across up to 1549 skeletal characters) in fossils. These approaches identify two drivers underlying the dinosaur-bird transition. The theropod lineage directly ancestral to birds undergoes sustained miniaturization across 50 million years and at least 12 consecutive branches (internodes) and evolves skeletal adaptations four times faster than other dinosaurs. The distinct, prolonged phase of miniaturization along the bird stem would have facilitated the evolution of many novelties associated with small body size, such as reorientation of body mass, increased aerial ability, and paedomorphic skulls with reduced snouts but enlarged eyes and brains.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lee, Michael S Y -- Cau, Andrea -- Naish, Darren -- Dyke, Gareth J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Aug 1;345(6196):562-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1252243.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Earth Sciences Section, South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide 5000, Australia. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide 5005, Australia. mike.lee@samuseum.sa.gov.au. ; Museo Geologico e Paleontologico "Giovanni Capellini," Via Zamboni 63, 40126 Bologna, Italy. Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Alma Mater Studiorum Universita di Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy. ; Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK. ; Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK. MTA-DE Lendulet Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Egyetem ter 1, Hungary.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25082702" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Bayes Theorem
;
*Biological Evolution
;
Birds/*anatomy & histology
;
*Body Size
;
Dinosaurs/*anatomy & histology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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