9
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Osteohistology and Life History of the Basal Pygostylian, Confuciusornis sanctus.

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPubMed
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          More than a thousand specimens of Confuciusornis sanctus have been recovered from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Group of Northeastern China. Here, we investigate the bone microstructure of 33 long bones sampled from 14 C. sanctus specimens in an attempt to assess the life history patterns of this basal pygostylian bird. Analysis of the histology of various skeletal elements (femur, humerus, tibia, radius, and ulna) revealed differences in the histology of their bone walls. Based on the osteohistology, we coded the examined specimens into five histology age classes. We found that histological age was not strictly correlated with body size. The variability in the histology of multiple bones from single skeletons suggests differences in the growth rate of the skeleton in response to allometry, functional demands, and pathology. We show that although fibrolamellar bone is widespread across birds, the extent and duration of this rapid phase of bone deposition is highly variable. Comparisons among Mesozoic birds confirm that early ontogenetic growth was rapid, but that later post-hatching growth was strongly influenced by the ontogenetic age of the individual, body size, and local environment, as well as taxonomy. Our findings indicate that C. sanctus experienced rapid growth from early ontogeny until almost fully grown, and thereafter transitioned to slow, episodic growth (for at least 3-4 years) to reach skeletal maturity. Anat Rec, 303:949-962, 2020. © 2019 American Association for Anatomy.

          Related collections

          Author and article information

          Journal
          Anat Rec (Hoboken)
          Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007)
          Wiley
          1932-8494
          1932-8486
          April 2020
          : 303
          : 4
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
          [2 ] Unidad de Paleontología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
          [3 ] Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California.
          [4 ] Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, Madrid, Spain.
          Article
          10.1002/ar.24282
          31751500
          19b42329-7b6d-475b-95f0-22afe86f4495
          History

          Confuciusornis,Mesozoic birds,life history,osteohistology,palaeobiology

          Comments

          Comment on this article