Dinosaur egg colour had a single evolutionary origin
@article{Wiemann2018DinosaurEC, title={Dinosaur egg colour had a single evolutionary origin}, author={Jasmina Wiemann and Tzu-Ruei Yang and Mark A. Norell}, journal={Nature}, year={2018}, volume={563}, pages={555-558} }
Birds are the only living amniotes with coloured eggs1–4, which have long been considered to be an avian innovation1,3. A recent study has demonstrated the presence of both red-brown protoporphyrin IX and blue-green biliverdin5—the pigments responsible for all the variation in avian egg colour—in fossilized eggshell of a nonavian dinosaur6. This raises the fundamental question of whether modern birds inherited egg colour from their nonavian dinosaur ancestors, or whether egg colour evolved…
41 Citations
The first dinosaur egg was soft
- Geography, Environmental ScienceNature
- 2020
Molecular analyses of newly discovered, embryo-bearing ornithischian and sauropod dinosaur eggs suggest that the ancestral dinosaur egg was soft- shelled, and that hard-shelled eggs evolved independently at least three times in the major dinosaur lineages.
Temperature drives the evolution and global distribution of avian eggshell colour
- Environmental Science, BiologybioRxiv
- 2019
Evidence is shown that darker and browner eggs have indeed evolved in cold climes, and that the thermoregulatory advantage for avian eggs is a stronger selective pressure in cold climates.
Comparative crystallography suggests maniraptoran theropod affinities for latest Cretaceous European ‘geckoid’ eggshell
- Geography, Environmental SciencePapers in Palaeontology
- 2020
Thin fossil eggshell from Upper Cretaceous deposits of Europe, characterized by nodular ornamentation similar to modern gekkotan eggshell, has mostly been interpreted as gekkotan (=‘geckoid’) in…
Recent advances in amniote palaeocolour reconstruction and a framework for future research
- Environmental Science, GeographyBiological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
- 2019
This review focused on fossil amniotes produces an overarching framework that appropriately reconstructs palaeocolour by accounting for the chemical signatures of various pigments, morphology and local arrangement of pigment‐bearing vesicles, pigment concentration, macroscopic colour patterns, and taphonomy.
Individuality in Egg Colouration of Black-Headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus across the Years Confirmed through DNA Analyses
- Biology, Environmental ScienceArdea
- 2020
Black-headed Gulls showed consistent individual-specific eggshell colour pattern across consecutive breeding seasons, which strongly suggest colour variation is driven by internal rather than external factors in this colonially breeding species.
Morphological research on amniote eggs and embryos: An introduction and historical retrospective
- BiologyJournal of morphology
- 2021
Recent research on various aspects of amniote eggs is summarized, including gastrulation, egg shape and eggshell morphology, eggs of Mesozoic dinosaurs, sauropsid yolk sacs, squamate placentation, embryogenesis, and the phylotypic phase of embryonic development.
An exquisitely preserved in-ovo theropod dinosaur embryo sheds light on avian-like prehatching postures
- Environmental Science, BiologyiScience
- 2022
Unscrambling variation in avian eggshell colour and patterning in a continent-wide study
- Biology, Environmental ScienceRoyal Society Open Science
- 2019
It is suggested that multiple factors combine to influence egg appearance in this species, and that even in species with highly variable eggs, coloration is not readily explained.
An Early Cretaceous enantiornithine (Aves) preserving an unlaid egg and probable medullary bone
- Biology, Environmental ScienceNature Communications
- 2019
The Cretaceous enantiornithine bird Avimaia schweitzerae is described, which preserves an unlaid egg in the abdominal cavity and putative medullary bone, and is hypothesized to represent the ancestral avian condition.
Avian Coloration Genetics: Recent Advances and Emerging Questions.
- BiologyThe Journal of heredity
- 2021
This review highlights recent advances and emerging questions associated with the genetic underpinnings of bird color, including breakthroughs related to 2 pigment classes: carotenoids that produce red, yellow, and orange in most birds and psittacofulvins that produce similar colors in parrots.
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