A Jurassic avialan dinosaur from China resolves the early phylogenetic history of birds
- P. Godefroit, A. Cau, Huang Dong-yu, François Escuillié, Wu Wenhao, G. Dyke
- BiologyNature
- 20 June 2013
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
- Michael S. Y. Lee, A. Cau, D. Naish, G. Dyke
- Biology, Environmental ScienceScience
- 1 August 2014
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).
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…
Morphological clocks in paleontology, and a mid-Cretaceous origin of crown Aves.
- Michael S. Y. Lee, A. Cau, D. Naish, G. Dyke
- Environmental ScienceSystematic Biology
- 1 May 2014
The oldest moleculardates further imply an extraordinarily rapid earlybird evolution, with the modern birds appearing only 20 myr after the KPg boundary.
A new sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Tunisia with extreme avian-like pneumatization.
- F. Fanti, A. Cau, Mohsen Hassine, Michela Contessi
- GeographyNature Communications
- 9 July 2013
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.
The largest thalattosuchian (Crocodylomorpha) supports teleosaurid survival across the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary
- F. Fanti, Tetsuto Miyashita, A. Cau
- Geography, Environmental Science
- 1 June 2016
A new Jurassic theropod from China documents a transitional step in the macrostructure of feathers
- Ulysse Lefèvre, A. Cau, P. Godefroit
- BiologySCIENCE NATURE
- 22 August 2017
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.
Synchrotron scanning reveals amphibious ecomorphology in a new clade of bird-like dinosaurs
- A. Cau, V. Beyrand, P. Godefroit
- Environmental Science, BiologyNature
- 6 December 2017
This lineage adds an amphibious ecomorphology to those evolved by maniraptorans: it acquired a predatory mode that relied mainly on neck hyperelongation for food procurement, it coupled the obligatory bipedalism of theropods with forelimb proportions that may support a swimming function, and it developed postural adaptations convergent with short-tailed birds.
New Information on Tataouinea hannibalis from the Early Cretaceous of Tunisia and Implications for the Tempo and Mode of Rebbachisaurid Sauropod Evolution
- F. Fanti, A. Cau, L. Cantelli, Mohsen Hassine, Marco Auditore
- Environmental Science, GeographyPLoS ONE
- 29 April 2015
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 ceratosaurian (Dinosauria: Theropoda), from the Lower Jurassic of Italy, sheds light on the evolution of the three-fingered hand of birds
- Cristiano Dal Sasso, S. Maganuco, A. Cau
- Environmental Science, GeographyPeerJ
- 19 December 2018
Compared to the atrophied hand of later members of Ceratosauria, Saltriovenator demonstrates that a fully functional hand, well-adapted for struggling and grasping, was primitively present in ceratosaurians.
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