Overview
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences (BRIEFSEARTHSYST)
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About this book
Although consensus exists among researchers that birds evolved from coelurosaurian theropods, paleontologists still debate the identification of the group of coelurosaurians that most closely approaches the common ancestor of birds. The last 20 years witnessed the discovery of a wide array of avian-like theropods that has considerably amplified the anatomical disparity among deinonychosaurians, some of which resemble Archaeopteryx more than Deinonychus. Among these newly discovered theropods that show remarkable bird-like characteristics are the four-winged theropods Microraptor and Anchiornis, and the unenlagiids Unenlagia, Buitreraptor, and Rahonavis. A bizarre group of minute-sized coelurosaurs, the Scansoriopterygidae, also exhibits some avian similarities that lead some authors to interpret them as more closely related to birds than other dinosaurs. With the aim to explore the phylogenetic relationships of these coelurosaurians and birds, we merged recently published integrative databases, resulting in significant changes in the topological distribution of taxa within Paraves. We present evidence that Dromaeosauridae, Microraptoria, Unenlagiidae, and Anchiornis + Xiaotingia form successive sister taxa of Aves, and that the Scansoriopterygidae are basal coelurosaurians not closely related to birds. The implications in the evolutionary sequence of anatomical characters leading to birds, including the origin of flight, are also considered in light of this new phylogenetic hypothesis.
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Fernando Emilio Novas is an Argentine paleontologist working for the Comparative Anatomy Department of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural History Argentine Museum in Buenos Aires. Novas holds a PhD in Natural sciences. Working for the CONICET, he described or co-described many dinosaurs, among them Abelisaurus, Aniksosaurus, Aragosaurus, Austroraptor, Megaraptor, Neuquenraptor, Orkoraptor, Patagonykus, Unenlagia, Araucanoraptor, Skorpiovenator, Tyrannotitan, Talenkauen, and Puertasaurus, most from the Patagonia region of Argentina.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Avian Ancestors
Book Subtitle: A Review of the Phylogenetic Relationships of the Theropods Unenlagiidae, Microraptoria, Anchiornis and Scansoriopterygidae
Authors: Federico Agnolin, Fernando E. Novas
Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5637-3
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental Science, Earth and Environmental Science (R0)
Copyright Information: The Author(s) 2013
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-007-5636-6Published: 15 March 2013
eBook ISBN: 978-94-007-5637-3Published: 26 February 2013
Series ISSN: 2191-589X
Series E-ISSN: 2191-5903
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 96
Number of Illustrations: 12 b/w illustrations, 6 illustrations in colour
Topics: Paleontology, Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography, Evolutionary Biology, Animal Anatomy / Morphology / Histology