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Yu Y, Zhang C, Xu X. Complex macroevolution of pterosaurs. Curr Biol 2023; 33:770-779.e4. [PMID: 36787747 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2022] [Revised: 11/13/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 02/16/2023]
Abstract
Pterosaurs, the earliest flying tetrapods, are the subject of some recent quantitative macroevolutionary analyses from different perspectives.1-2 Here, we use an integrative approach involving newly assembled phylogenetic and body size datasets, net diversification rates, morphological rates, and morphological disparity to gain a holistic understanding of the pterosaur macroevolution. The first two parameters are important in quantitative analyses of macroevolution, but they have been rarely used in previous pterosaur studies.1,3,4,2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 Our study reveals an ∼115-Ma period-from Early Triassic to Early Cretaceous-of multi-wave increasing net diversification rates and disparity, as well as high morphological rates, followed by an ∼65-Ma period-from Early Cretaceous to the end of the Cretaceous-of mostly negative net diversification rates, decreasing disparity, and relatively low morphological rates in pterosaur evolution. Our study demonstrates the following: (1) body size plays an important role in pterosaur lineage diversification during nearly their whole evolutionary history, and the evolution of locomotion, trophic, and ornamental structures also plays a role in different periods; (2) birds, the other major flying tetrapod group at the time, might have affected pterosaur macroevolution for ∼100 Ma; and (3) different mass extinction events might have affected pterosaur evolution differently. Particularly, the revealed decline in pterosaur biodiversity during the Middle and Late Cretaceous periods provides further support for the possible presence of a biodiversity decline of large-sized terrestrial amniotes starting in the mid-Cretaceous,13,14 which may have been caused by multiple factors including a global land area decrease during these periods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yilun Yu
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Chi Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
| | - Xing Xu
- Centre for Vertebrate Evolutionary Biology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China; Shenyang Normal University, Paleontological Museum of Liaoning, Shenyang, China.
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2
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Perry GLW, Wilmshurst JM, Wood JR. Reconstructing ecological functions provided by extinct fauna using allometrically informed simulation models: An in silico framework for ‘movement palaeoecology’. Funct Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Janet M. Wilmshurst
- School of Environment University of Auckland Auckland New Zealand
- Manaaki Whenua‐Landcare Research Lincoln New Zealand
| | - Jamie R. Wood
- Manaaki Whenua‐Landcare Research Lincoln New Zealand
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3
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Brocklehurst N, Field DJ. Macroevolutionary dynamics of dentition in Mesozoic birds reveal no long-term selection towards tooth loss. iScience 2021; 24:102243. [PMID: 33763634 PMCID: PMC7973866 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102243] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2020] [Revised: 12/16/2020] [Accepted: 02/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Several potential drivers of avian tooth loss have been proposed, although consensus remains elusive as fully toothless jaws arose independently numerous times among Mesozoic avialans and dinosaurs more broadly. The origin of crown bird edentulism has been discussed in terms of a broad-scale selective pressure or trend toward toothlessness, although this has never been quantitatively tested. Here, we find no evidence for models whereby iterative acquisitions of toothlessness among Mesozoic Avialae were driven by an overarching selective trend. Instead, our results support modularity among jaw regions underlying heterogeneous tooth loss patterns and indicate a substantially later transition to complete crown bird edentulism than previously hypothesized (∼90 mya). We show that patterns of avialan tooth loss adhere to Dollo's law and suggest that the exclusive survival of toothless birds to the present represents lineage-specific selective pressures, irreversibility of tooth loss, and the filter of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K–Pg) mass extinction. The evolutionary processes underlying tooth loss in Mesozoic birds are debated Analyses reveal no long-term selective pressure or trend toward toothlessness Tooth loss was likely a result of local selective pressures on individual lineages The transition to crown bird toothlessness occurred later than previously hypothesized
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Affiliation(s)
- Neil Brocklehurst
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK
| | - Daniel J Field
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, UK
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Zheng X, Wang X, Sullivan C, Zhang X, Zhang F, Wang Y, Li F, Xu X. Exceptional dinosaur fossils reveal early origin of avian-style digestion. Sci Rep 2018; 8:14217. [PMID: 30242170 PMCID: PMC6155034 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-32202-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2017] [Accepted: 05/15/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Birds have a highly specialized and efficient digestive system, but when this system originated remains uncertain. Here we report six gastric pellets attributable to the recently discovered 160-million-year-old troodontid dinosaur Anchiornis, which is among the key taxa for understanding the transition to birds. The gastric pellets contain lightly acid-etched lizard bones or fish scales, and some are associated with Anchiornis skeletons or even situated within the oesophagus. Anchiornis is the earliest and most basal theropod known to have produced gastric pellets. In combination with other lines of evidence, the pellets suggest that a digestive system resembling that of modern birds was already present in basal members of the Paraves, a clade including troodontids, dromaeosaurids, and birds, and that the evolution of modern avian digestion may have been related to the appearance of aerial locomotion in this lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoting Zheng
- Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, Linyi City, Shandong, 276005, China.,Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature, Pingyi, Shandong, 273300, China
| | - Xiaoli Wang
- Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, Linyi City, Shandong, 276005, China.
| | - Corwin Sullivan
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9, Canada.,Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, Wembley, Alberta, T0H 3S0, Canada
| | - Xiaomei Zhang
- Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature, Pingyi, Shandong, 273300, China
| | - Fucheng Zhang
- Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, Linyi City, Shandong, 276005, China
| | - Yan Wang
- Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, Linyi City, Shandong, 276005, China
| | - Feng Li
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People's Republic of China.,Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China
| | - Xing Xu
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China.
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6
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The evolutionary origins of Lévy walk foraging. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005774. [PMID: 28972973 PMCID: PMC5640246 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005774] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2016] [Revised: 10/13/2017] [Accepted: 09/14/2017] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
We study through a reaction-diffusion algorithm the influence of landscape diversity on the efficiency of search dynamics. Remarkably, the identical optimal search strategy arises in a wide variety of environments, provided the target density is sparse and the searcher’s information is restricted to its close vicinity. Our results strongly impact the current debate on the emergentist vs. evolutionary origins of animal foraging. The inherent character of the optimal solution (i.e., independent on the landscape for the broad scenarios assumed here) suggests an interpretation favoring the evolutionary view, as originally implied by the Lévy flight foraging hypothesis. The latter states that, under conditions of scarcity of information and sparse resources, some organisms must have evolved to exploit optimal strategies characterized by heavy-tailed truncated power-law distributions of move lengths. These results strongly suggest that Lévy strategies—and hence the selection pressure for the relevant adaptations—are robust with respect to large changes in habitat. In contrast, the usual emergentist explanation seems not able to explain how very similar Lévy walks can emerge from all the distinct non-Lévy foraging strategies that are needed for the observed large variety of specific environments. We also report that deviations from Lévy can take place in plentiful ecosystems, where locomotion truncation is very frequent due to high encounter rates. So, in this case normal diffusion strategies—performing as effectively as the optimal one—can naturally emerge from Lévy. Our results constitute the strongest theoretical evidence to date supporting the evolutionary origins of experimentally observed Lévy walks. How organisms improve the search for food, mates, etc., is a key factor to their survival. Mathematically, the best strategy to look for randomly distributed re-visitable resources—under scarce information and sparse conditions—results from Lévy distributions of move lengths (the probability of taking a step ℓ is proportional to 1/ℓ2). Today it is well established that many animal species in different habitats do perform Lévy foraging. This fact has raised a heated debate, viz., the emergent versus evolutionary hypotheses. For the former, a Lévy foraging is an emergent property, a consequence of searcher-environment interactions: certain landscapes induce Lévy patterns, but others not. In this view, the optimal strategy depends on the particular habitat. The evolutionary explanation, in contrast, is that Lévy foraging strategies are adaptations that evolved via natural selection. In this article, through simulations we exhaustively analyze the influence of distinct environments on the foraging efficiency. We find that the optimal procedure is the same in all situations, provided density is low and landscape information is scarce. So, the best search strategy is remarkably independent of details. These results constitute the strongest theoretical evidence to date supporting the evolutionary origins of experimentally observed Lévy walks.
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Mitchell JS. Extant-only comparative methods fail to recover the disparity preserved in the bird fossil record. Evolution 2015; 69:2414-24. [PMID: 26257156 DOI: 10.1111/evo.12738] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2015] [Revised: 06/29/2015] [Accepted: 07/12/2015] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Most extant species are in clades with poor fossil records, and recent studies of comparative methods show they have low power to infer even highly simplified models of trait evolution without fossil data. Birds are a well-studied radiation, yet their early evolutionary patterns are still contentious. The fossil record suggests that birds underwent a rapid ecological radiation after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, and several smaller, subsequent radiations. This hypothesized series of repeated radiations from fossil data is difficult to test using extant data alone. By uniting morphological and phylogenetic data on 604 extant genera of birds with morphological data on 58 species of extinct birds from 50 million years ago, the "halfway point" of avian evolution, I have been able to test how well extant-only methods predict the diversity of fossil forms. All extant-only methods underestimate the disparity, although the ratio of within- to between-clade disparity does suggest high early rates. The failure of standard models to predict high early disparity suggests that recent radiations are obscuring deep time patterns in the evolution of birds. Metrics from different models can be used in conjunction to provide more valuable insights than simply finding the model with the highest relative fit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan S Mitchell
- Committee on Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago, 5034 S. Woodlawn, Chicago, Illinois, 60615. .,Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, The University of Michigan, 2019 Kraus Nat. Sci. Bldg, 830 N. University, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109.
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Mitchell JS, Makovicky PJ. Low ecological disparity in Early Cretaceous birds. Proc Biol Sci 2015; 281:rspb.2014.0608. [PMID: 24870044 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.0608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Ecological divergence is thought to be coupled with evolutionary radiations, yet the strength of this coupling is unclear. When birds diversified ecologically has received much less attention than their hotly debated crown divergence time. Here, we quantify how accurately skeletal morphology can predict ecology in living and extinct birds, and show that the earliest known assemblage of birds (=pygostylians) from the Jehol Biota (≈125 Ma) was substantially impoverished ecologically. The Jehol avifauna has few representatives of highly preservable ecomorphs (e.g. aquatic forms) and a notable lack of ecomorphological overlap with the pterosaur assemblage (e.g. no large or aerially foraging pygostylians). Comparisons of the Jehol functional diversity with modern and subfossil avian assemblages show that taphonomic bias alone cannot explain the ecomorphological impoverishment. However, evolutionary simulations suggest that the constrained ecological diversity of the Early Cretaceous pygostylians is consistent with what is expected from a relatively young radiation. Regardless of the proximate biological explanation, the anomalously low functional diversity of the Jehol birds is evidence both for ecological vacancies in Cretaceous ecosystems, which were subsequently filled by the radiation of crown Aves, and for discordance between taxonomic richness and ecological diversity in the best-known Mesozoic ecosystem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan S Mitchell
- Committee on Evolutionary Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA Department of Science and Education, The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL 60615, USA
| | - Peter J Makovicky
- Department of Science and Education, The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL 60615, USA
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Abstract
Birds are important pollinators, but the evolutionary history of ornithophily (bird pollination) is poorly known. Here, we report a skeleton of the avian taxon Pumiliornis from the middle Eocene of Messel in Germany with preserved stomach contents containing numerous pollen grains of an eudicotyledonous angiosperm. The skeletal morphology of Pumiliornis is in agreement with this bird having been a, presumably nectarivorous, flower-visitor. It represents the earliest and first direct fossil evidence of flower-visiting by birds and indicates a minimum age of 47 million years for the origin of bird-flower interactions. As Pumiliornis does not belong to any of the modern groups of flower-visiting birds, the origin of ornithophily in some angiosperm lineages may have predated that of their extant avian pollinators.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerald Mayr
- Ornithological Section, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, Frankfurt am Main 60325, Germany
| | - Volker Wilde
- Palaeobotanical Section, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, Frankfurt am Main 60325, Germany
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