Morphological coevolution of the pygostyle and tail feathers in Early Cretaceous birds
@inproceedings{Wei2017MorphologicalCO, title={Morphological coevolution of the pygostyle and tail feathers in Early Cretaceous birds}, author={Wang Wei and Jingmai K. O’Connor}, year={2017} }
The transformation from a long reptilian tail to a shortened tail ending in a pygostyle and accompanied by aerodynamic fanning rectrices is one of the most remarkable adaptations of early avian evolution. However, no fossils directly capture this transition, and information regarding the structural morphology and the early evolution of the pygostyle in Mesozoic birds and their integuments is relatively limited. Here we provide a review of the pygostyle morphology of Early Cretaceous birds with…
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