A. Cau

Publications61
h-index20
Citations1,374
Highly Influential Citations121
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A Jurassic avialan dinosaur from China resolves the early phylogenetic history of birds
TLDR
The complete skeleton of a new paravian from the Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning Province, China is described and including it in a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis for basal Paraves recovers Archaeopteryx as the basal-most avialan and implies that the early diversification of Paraves and Avialae took place in the Middle–Late Jurassic period.
Sustained miniaturization and anatomical innovation in the dinosaurian ancestors of birds
TLDR
Bayesian approaches are applied to infer size changes and rates of anatomical innovation in fossils to identify two drivers underlying the dinosaur-bird transition, including the theropod lineage directly ancestral to birds undergoes sustained miniaturization across 50 million years and at least 12 consecutive branches (internodes).
A new sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Tunisia with extreme avian-like pneumatization.
TLDR
The Tunisian specimen shows a complex pattern of caudosacral and pelvic pneumatization--including the first report of an ischial pneumatic foramen among Dinosauria--strongly supporting the presence of abdominal air sacs.
Morphological clocks in paleontology, and a mid-Cretaceous origin of crown Aves.
TLDR
The oldest moleculardates further imply an extraordinarily rapid earlybird evolution, with the modern birds appearing only 20 myr after the KPg boundary.
The assembly of the avian body plan : a 160-million-year long process
Birds are one of the most successful groups of vertebrates. The origin of birds from their reptilian ancestors is traditionally rooted near the Jurassic “Urvogel” Archaeopteryx, an approach that has…
A new Jurassic theropod from China documents a transitional step in the macrostructure of feathers
TLDR
The phylogenetic analysis places Serikornis, together with other Late Jurassic paravian from China, as a basal paravians, outside the Eumaniraptora clade, suggesting that hindlimb remiges evolved in ground-dwelling maniraptorans before being co-opted to an arboreal lifestyle or flight.
The largest thalattosuchian (Crocodylomorpha) supports teleosaurid survival across the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary
New Information on Tataouinea hannibalis from the Early Cretaceous of Tunisia and Implications for the Tempo and Mode of Rebbachisaurid Sauropod Evolution
TLDR
Bayesian inference analyses integrating morphological, stratigraphic and paleogeographic data support a flagellicaudatan-rebbachisaurid divergence at about 163 Ma and a South American ancestral range for rebbachisaurids, which would indicate that South America was not affected by the end-Jurassic extinction of diplodocoids.
The oldest known metriorhynchid crocodylian from the Middle Jurassic of North-eastern Italy: Neptunidraco ammoniticus gen. et sp. nov.
Application of numerical cladistic analyses to the Carnian–Norian conodonts: a new approach for phylogenetic interpretations
TLDR
The authors' analyses show the evolutionary and systematic value of certain morphological characters, and lead to a reinterpretation of the phylogenetic position of the genera considered, and clarify the systematic position of ‘Metapolygnathus communisti B’.
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