Assessing ontogenetic maturity in extinct saurian reptiles

CT Griffin, MR Stocker, C Colleary… - Biological …, 2021 - Wiley Online Library
Morphology forms the most fundamental level of data in vertebrate palaeontology because it
is through interpretations of morphology that taxa are identified, creating the basis for broad …

Whole‐body endothermy: ancient, homologous and widespread among the ancestors of mammals, birds and crocodylians

G Grigg, J Nowack, JEPW Bicudo, NC Bal… - Biological …, 2022 - Wiley Online Library
The whole‐body (tachymetabolic) endothermy seen in modern birds and mammals is long
held to have evolved independently in each group, a reasonable assumption when it was …

Growing up Tyrannosaurus rex: Osteohistology refutes the pygmy “Nanotyrannus” and supports ontogenetic niche partitioning in juvenile Tyrannosaurus

HN Woodward, K Tremaine, SA Williams, LE Zanno… - Science …, 2020 - science.org
Despite its iconic status as the king of dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex biology is incompletely
understood. Here, we examine femur and tibia bone microstructure from two half-grown T …

A Triassic plesiosaurian skeleton and bone histology inform on evolution of a unique body plan

T Wintrich, S Hayashi, A Houssaye, Y Nakajima… - Science …, 2017 - science.org
Secondary marine adaptation is a major pattern in amniote evolution, accompanied by
specific bone histological adaptations. In the aftermath of the end-Permian extinction …

Maiasaura, a model organism for extinct vertebrate population biology: a large sample statistical assessment of growth dynamics and survivorship

HN Woodward, EAF Fowler, JO Farlow, JR Horner - Paleobiology, 2015 - cambridge.org
Fossil bone microanalyses reveal the ontogenetic histories of extinct tetrapods, but
incomplete fossil records often result in small sample sets lacking statistical strength. In …

Origins of slow growth on the crocodilian stem lineage

J Botha, BM Weiss, K Dollman, PM Barrett… - Current Biology, 2023 - cell.com
Crocodilians grow slowly and have low metabolic rates similar to other living reptiles, but
palaeohistology indicates that they evolved from an ancestor with higher growth rates. 1, 2 …

What's my age again? On the ambiguity of histology-based skeletochronology

PJ Schucht, N Klein… - Proceedings of the …, 2021 - royalsocietypublishing.org
Histology-based skeletochronology is a widely used approach to determine the age of an
individual, and is based on the assumption that temporal cessations or decelerations of …

Wing bone geometry reveals active flight in Archaeopteryx

DFAE Voeten, J Cubo, E De Margerie, M Röper… - Nature …, 2018 - nature.com
Archaeopteryx is an iconic fossil taxon with feathered wings from the Late Jurassic of
Germany that occupies a crucial position for understanding the early evolution of avian flight …

Palaeobiological inferences of “rauisuchians” Fasolasuchus tenax (Los Colorados Fm., Argentina) and Prestosuchus chiniquensis (Santa Maria Super sequence …

DA Ponce, TM Scheyer, IA Cerda… - Journal of Anatomy, 2023 - Wiley Online Library
Abstract “Rauisuchia” is a non‐monophyletic group of quadrupedal and carnivorous
pseudosuchians that inhabited the entire world during the Middle–Upper Triassic period …

Palaeoecological deductions from osteohistology

A Chinsamy - Biology Letters, 2023 - royalsocietypublishing.org
Palaeoecological deductions are vital for understanding the evolution and diversification of
species within prehistoric environments. This review highlights the multitude of ways in …