ReviewJournal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution2003
Adaptation to the sky: Defining the feather with integument fossils from mesozoic China and experimental evidence from molecular laboratories.
Review in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 83 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cyclic renewal in three ectodermal appendage follicles: Hairs, feathers and teeth.Developmental biology · 2025Review
- The origin and early evolution of feathers: implications, uncertainties and future prospects.Biology letters · 2025Review
- Environmental Factors Affecting Feather Taphonomy.Biology · 2022Article
- Analysis and comparison of protein secondary structures in the rachis of avian flight feathers.PeerJ · 2022Article
- Cyclic growth of dermal papilla and regeneration of follicular mesenchymal components during feather cycling.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2021Article
- Making region-specific integumentary organs in birds: evolution and modifications.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2021Review
- Article
- Transcriptome analyses of reprogrammed feather / scale chimeric explants revealed co-expressed epithelial gene networks during organ specification.BMC genomics · 2018Article
- Genetic and Molecular Basis of Feather Diversity in Birds.Genome biology and evolution · 2018Review
- Review: cornification, morphogenesis and evolution of feathers.Protoplasma · 2017Review
- Diverse feather shape evolution enabled by coupling anisotropic signalling modules with self-organizing branching programme.Nature communications · 2017Article
- The Modulatable Stem Cell Niche: Tissue Interactions during Hair and Feather Follicle Regeneration.Journal of molecular biology · 2016Review
- Topographical mapping of α- and β-keratins on developing chicken skin integuments: Functional interaction and evolutionary perspectives.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2015Article
- A Mesozoic bird from Gondwana preserving feathers.Nature communications · 2015Article
- Article
- Development, regeneration, and evolution of feathers.Annual review of animal biosciences · 2015Review
- Evolutionary constraints or opportunities?Bio Systems · 2014Article
- Homology and Potential Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms for the Development of Unique Feather Morphologies in Early Birds.Geosciences · 2012Article
- In search of the Golden Fleece: unraveling principles of morphogenesis by studying the integrative biology of skin appendages.Integrative biology : quantitative biosciences from nano to macro · 2011Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
In this special issue on the Evo-Devo of amniote integuments, Alibardi has discussed the adaptation of the integument to the land. Here we will discuss the adaptation to the sky. We first review a series of fossil discoveries representing intermediate forms of feathers or feather-like appendages from dinosaurs and Mesozoic birds from the Jehol Biota of China. We then discuss the molecular and developmental biological experiments using chicken integuments as the model. Feather forms can be modulated using retrovirus mediated gene mis-expression that mimics those found in nature today and in the evolutionary past. The molecular conversions among different types of integument appendages (feather, scale, tooth) are discussed. From this evidence, we recognize that not all organisms with feathers are birds, and that not all skin appendages with hierarchical branches are feathers. We develop a set of criteria for true avian feathers: 1) possessing actively proliferating cells in the proximal follicle for proximo-distal growth mode; 2) forming hierarchical branches of rachis, barbs, and barbules, with barbs formed by differential cell death and bilaterally or radially symmetric; 3) having a follicle structure, with mesenchyme core during development; 4) when mature, consisting of epithelia without mesenchyme core and with two sides of the vane facing the previous basal and supra-basal layers, respectively; and 5) having stem cells and dermal papilla in the follicle and hence the ability to molt and regenerate. A model of feather evolution from feather bud --> barbs --> barbules --> rachis is presented, which is opposite to the old view of scale plate --> rachis --> barbs --> barbules (Regal, '75; Q Rev Biol 50:35).
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.