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Mesozoic avian bone microstructure: physiological implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

Anusuya Chinsamy ,
Luis M. Chiappe  and
Peter Dodson
Anusuya Chinsamy
Affiliation:
Earth Sciences Division, South African Museum, Post Office Box 61, Cape Town, 8000 South Africa
Luis M. Chiappe
Affiliation:
Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at Seventy-ninth Street, New York, New York 10024
Peter Dodson
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 3800 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6045
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Abstract

We report on the bone microstructure of the Late Cretaceous birds Patagopteryx deferrariisi and members of the Enantiornithes. These birds represent the most primitive birds ever studied histologically. The occurrence of growth rings indicating alternating periods of slowed and fast growth suggests that these basal birds had slower growth rates, and differed physiologically from their modern relatives. Our findings also call into question previous ideas suggesting that nonavian theropods developed a full avian degree of homeothermic endothermy, which was later inherited by birds. On the contrary, our findings suggest that birds developed classic endothermy relatively late in their phylogenetic history.

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Articles
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Paleobiology , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , Fall 1995 , pp. 561 - 574
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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References

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