赫氏近鸟龙(兽脚类恐龙: 副鸟类)头骨形态对鸟类头骨演化的新启示
收稿日期: 2024-10-29
网络出版日期: 2024-12-25
基金资助
国家自然科学基金杰出青年基金(42225201);中国科学院前沿科学重点研究计划从“0到1”原始创新十年择优项目(ZDBS-LY-DQC002);新基石科学基金会所设立的科学探索奖和山东省泰山学者工程(Ts20190954)
Cranial anatomy of Anchiornis huxleyi (Theropoda: Paraves) sheds new light on bird skull evolution
Received date: 2024-10-29
Online published: 2024-12-25
无论从何种维度，恐龙—鸟类的演化都是地球生命历史中最吸引人的一次演化事件，其中涉及大量形态学和生态学特征的改变。相较于头后骨骼形态，现有的研究对鸟类头骨的早期演化所取得的认识相对有限，这主要受限于保存较好的早期鸟翼类头骨化石材料的稀少。近鸟龙是目前已知最早的副鸟类(距今约1.6亿年)——副鸟类是指包含所有现代鸟类，但不包括尾羽龙类或者耀龙类的最广义类群。已知的近鸟龙类化石多达百余件，使得该类群成为研究非鸟兽脚类恐龙—鸟类演化过程中形态变化的最理想对象。然而目前有关近鸟龙类的头骨形态特征存在大量未知的内容。基于一件保存较好的近鸟龙类化石，详细描述了该类群头骨的形态结构，包括此前知之甚少的区域(例如颞区和颚区)。研究显示出近鸟龙保留了非鸟恐龙所具有的原始的双弓型非可动性的头骨形态。同时，近鸟龙头骨还呈现出与驰龙类、伤齿龙类，以及原始鸟翼类分别相似的局部形态特征，揭示了模块化演化深刻影响鸟翼类头骨的早期演化。
王敏 , 王孝理 , 郑晓廷 , 周忠和 . 赫氏近鸟龙(兽脚类恐龙: 副鸟类)头骨形态对鸟类头骨演化的新启示[J]. 古脊椎动物学报, 2025 , 63(1) : 20 -42 . DOI: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.241225
The origin of birds from theropod dinosaurs, by any measures, is the most eye-catching evolutionary transition in the history of life, which encompasses numerous extensive morphological and biological changes. Compared to postcranium, little progress has been made regarding the evolutionary assemblage of the birds’ skull, because of few detailed early records of cranial materials of stem lineages. Anchiornis is the oldest known record of the Paraves (~160 Ma), the most inclusive clade that contains all living birds but not Caudipteryx or Epidexipteryx. With hundreds of known specimens, Anchiornis constitutes an ideal taxon for investigating morphological modifications across the theropod-bird transition, but its cranial morphology remains enigmatic. Here we present in-depth description of the cranial morphology of Anchiornis based on three-dimensional reconstruction of a well-preserved specimen, including elements from the temporal and palatal regions that are poorly recognized previously. Our study shows that Anchiornis retains the plesiomorphic dinosaurian condition in having a diapsid akinetic skull. The mixture of cranial characters, shared with dromaeosaurids, troodontids, and stemward avialans, present in Anchiornis demonstrates the complex history of early avialan cranial evolution.
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