Insight into the early evolution of the avian sternum from juvenile enantiornithines
Open accessAbstract
The sternum is one of the most important and characteristic skeletal elements in living birds, highly adapted for flight and showing a diverse range of morphologies. New exceptional material of young juvenile specimens from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Group in northeastern China reveals the unique sequence of development in the sternum of Enantiornithes, the dominant clade of Cretaceous birds. We recognize six ossifications that together form the sternum, three of which were previously unknown. Here we show that although basal living birds apparently have retained the dinosaurian condition in which the sternum develops from a bilateral pair of ossifications (present in paravian dinosaurs and basal birds), the enantiornithine sternal body primarily develops from two unilateral proximo-distally arranged ossifications. This indicates that although superficially similar, the sternum formed very differently in enantiornithines and ornithuromorphs, suggesting that several ornithothoracine sternal features may represent parallelism. This highlights the importance of ontogenetic studies for understanding homology and the evolution of skeletal features in palaeontology.
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The origin of the modern flight feather is coincident with the inferred origin of multiple flight-related features, such as the alula and an ossified sternal keel.
“The origin of the modern flight feather-characterized by small barb angles in cutting-edge vanes and larger barb angles in trailing vanes-is coincident with the inferred origin of multiple flight-related features, such as the alula and an ossified sternal keel [40,41].”
From Barb geometry of asymmetrical feathers reveals a transitional morphology in the evolution of avian flight (2015) · cites this paper as [41]
The introduction states that a projecting sternal keel appears in Ornithothoraces, supporting the claim’s keel component. The paper does not compare the keel’s inferred origin with the origin of modern flight feathers or the alula, so it does not establish the claimed coincidence. The supplied passages have section labels but no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe origin of the modern flight feather is coincident with the inferred origin of multiple flight-related features, such as the alula and an ossified sternal keel.
“The origin of the modern flight feather-characterized by small barb angles in cutting-edge vanes and larger barb angles in trailing vanes-is coincident with the inferred origin of multiple flight-related features, such as the alula and an ossified sternal keel [40,41].”
From Barb geometry of asymmetrical feathers reveals a transitional morphology in the evolution of avian flight (2015) · cites this paper as [40]
The introductory passage (page unavailable) places the appearance of a projecting sternal keel in Ornithothoraces, supporting the cited paper’s role as evidence for that flight-related feature. It does not address the origin of modern flight feathers or the alula, or establish that their origins coincided with the keel’s. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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Correlated evolution of sternal keel length and ilium length in birds
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Influence of keel impacts and laying hen behavior on keel bone damage
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WITHDRAWN: A maned theropod dinosaur from Gondwana with elaborate integumentary structures
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Avian bone physiology and poultry bone disorders
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Self-citationAvian Locomotion: Flying, Running, Walking, Climbing, Swimming, and Diving
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Self-citationDinosaurs as ancestors of birds, and birds as descendants of dinosaurs
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Growth rate and locomotor performance tradeoff is not universal in birds
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- Authors
- Zheng, X., Wang, X., O'Connor, J., & Zhou, Z.
- Affiliations
- Linyi University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Corresponding author
- O'Connor, Jingmai
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2012-10-09
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1116-1116
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2156664741
- Cited by
- 115
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 9
- FWCI
- 5.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (973 Program, 41102009, 41172016, 41172020, 2012CB821906)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- National Key Research and Development Program of China (2012CB821906, 973 Program, 2012CB821906)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Fossil Insects in Amber
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Keywords
- Enantiornithes, juvenile birds, ossification sequence, ontogeny, Early Cretaceous birds, Jehol Group, homology, parallel evolution
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Birds, China, Biological Evolution, Paleontology, Sternum
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