A pre-Archaeopteryx troodontid theropod from China with long feathers on the metatarsus
- Dongyu Hu, L. Hou, Lijun Zhang, Xing Xu
- Environmental Science, GeographyNature
- 1 October 2009
The extensive feathering of this specimen, particularly the attachment of long pennaceous feathers to the pes, sheds new light on the early evolution of feathers and demonstrates the complex distribution of skeletal and integumentary features close to the dinosaur–bird transition.
Was Dinosaurian Physiology Inherited by Birds? Reconciling Slow Growth in Archaeopteryx
- G. Erickson, O. Rauhut, M. Norell
- Biology, Environmental SciencePLoS ONE
- 9 October 2009
These findings dispute the hypothesis that non-avialan dinosaur growth and physiology were inherited in totality by the first birds and demonstrate the presence of a scale-dependent maniraptoran histological continuum that Archaeopteryx and other basalmost birds follow.
Reduced plumage and flight ability of a new Jurassic paravian theropod from China.
- P. Godefroit, Helena Demuynck, G. Dyke, Dongyu Hu, François Escuillié, P. Claeys
- BiologyNature Communications
- 22 January 2013
A basal troodontid from the Tiaojishan Formation that resembles Anchiornis is reported that increases the known diversity of small-bodied dinosaurs in the Jurassic, shows that taxa with similar body plans could occupy different niches in the same ecosystem and suggests a more complex picture for the origin of flight.
A New Enantiornithine Bird from the Lower Cretaceous of Western Liaoning, China
The almost perfectly preserved skeleton of this new enantiornithine bird Bohaiornis guoi reveals many morphological features previously unknown in basal birds, but also clarifies many fine details of previously known features.
A gigantic feathered dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of China
- Xing Xu, Kebai Wang, Shuo Wang
- Environmental Science, GeographyNature
- 4 April 2012
Morphometric analysis suggests that Y. huali differed from tyrannosaurids in its growth strategy, thus providing direct evidence for the presence of extensively feathered gigantic dinosaurs and offering new insights into early feather evolution.
Mosaic evolution in an asymmetrically feathered troodontid dinosaur with transitional features
This report reports a new troodontid from the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Group of China that has anatomical features that are transitional between long-armed basal Troodontids and derived short-armed ones, shedding new light on troodonid character evolution and suggests that feather asymmetry was ancestral to Paraves.
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.
A bony-crested Jurassic dinosaur with evidence of iridescent plumage highlights complexity in early paravian evolution
A distinctive new Yanliao theropod species bearing prominent lacrimal crests, bony ornaments previously known from more basal theropods, and a suite of unusual skeletal and feather characteristics consistent with proposed rapid character evolution and significant diversity in signalling and locomotor strategies near bird origins.
Heterochronic truncation of odontogenesis in theropod dinosaurs provides insight into the macroevolution of avian beaks
- Shuo Wang, Josef Stiegler, Xing Xu
- Biology, Environmental ScienceProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 25 September 2017
Evidence of ontogenetic vestigialization of alveoli in two lineages of theropod dinosaurs is provided and it is proposed that progressively earlier postnatal and embryonic truncation of odontogenesis corresponds with expansion of rostral keratin associated with the caruncle, and these progenesis and peramorphosis heterochronies combine to drive the evolution of edentulous beaks in nonavian theropods and birds.
A new long‐tailed basal bird from the Lower Cretaceous of north‐eastern China
- Ulysse Lefèvre, Dongyu Hu, François Escuillié, G. Dyke, P. Godefroit
- Biology, Environmental Science
- 1 October 2014
A revision of long-tailed birds from China and a phylogenetic analysis of basal Avialae suggest that Jeholornithiformes were paraphyletic, with Jixiangornis orientalis being the sister-taxon of pygostylia.
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