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Project

Functional signals in bone microstructure of flying vertebrates, and its importance for the understanding of the origin of powered flight in feathered dinosaurs

Exciting new discoveries of feathered dinosaurs during the last decenia have accumulated and gained more popularity, both among scientists and the broader public. These new fossil finds have put the origin and evolution of flapping flight in new perspectives, including the early four-winged phase and secondary loss of flight performance in several theropod dinosaurs. Locomotion types, as well as insights in biological growth, ontogenetic stages and habitat preferences are all traits that show up in the bone anatomy, from complete bones to bone tissue. This makes bone a huge source of information that could allow us to better understand the evolutionary transition from non-flying theropod dinosaurs to flying birds, as well as flight loss in some birds.

Date:1 Oct 2015 →  30 Jun 2019
Keywords:flight, bone, evolution, adaptations, bird, dinosaur, bone tissue
Disciplines:Animal morphology, anatomy and physiology, Palaeontology, Evolutionary developmental biology, Vertebrate biology, Animal developmental and reproductive biology, Phylogeny and comparative analysis, Biology of adaptation