ArticlePloS one2020
Inferring lifestyle for Aves and Theropoda: A model based on curvatures of extant avian ungual bones.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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14 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- How do forelimb long bones adapt in rhinoceroses? An in-depth examination of their microanatomy.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- Forelimb feathering, soft tissues, and skeleton of the flying dromaeosaurid Microraptor.BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- New information on the Hind limb feathering, soft tissues and skeleton of Microraptor (Theropoda: Dromaeosauridae).BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Forelimb reduction and digit loss were evolutionarily decoupled in oviraptorosaurian theropod dinosaurs.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Insights into the early evolution of modern avian physiology from fossilized soft tissues from the Mesozoic.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Osteology and functional morphology of a transitional pterosaur Dearc sgiathanach from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) of Scotland.BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Inferring the locomotor ecology of two of the oldest fossil squirrels: influence of operationalization, trait, body size and machine learning method.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Article
- Functional space analyses reveal the function and evolution of the most bizarre theropod manual unguals.Communications biology · 2023Article
- A New Era of Morphological Investigations: Reviewing Methods for Comparative Anatomical Studies.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2023Review
- Exceptional preservation and foot structure reveal ecological transitions and lifestyles of early theropod flyers.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Diet of Mesozoic toothed birds (Longipterygidae) inferred from quantitative analysis of extant avian diet proxies.BMC biology · 2022Article
- The diet of early birds based on modern and fossil evidence and a new framework for its reconstruction.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2021Review
- Quantifying shape and ecology in avian pedal claws: The relationship between the bony core and keratinous sheath.Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Claws are involved in a number of behaviours including locomotion and prey capture, and as a result animals evolve claw morphologies that enable these functions. Past authors have found geometry of the keratinous sheath of the claw to correlate with mode of life for extant birds and squamates; this relationship has frequently been cited to infer lifestyles for Mesozoic theropods including Archaeopteryx. However, many fossil claws lack keratinous sheaths and thus cannot be analysed using current methods. As the ungual phalanx within the claw is more commonly preserved in the fossil record, geometry of this bone may provide a more useful metric for paleontological analysis. In this study, ungual bones of 108 birds and 5 squamates were imaged using X-ray techniques and a relationship was found between curvatures of the ungual bone within the claw of pedal digit III and four modes of life; ground-dwelling, perching, predatory, and scansorial; using linear discriminant analysis with weighted accuracy equal to 0.79. Our model predicts arboreal lifestyles for Archaeopteryx and Microraptor and a predatory ecology for Confuciusornis. These findings demonstrate the utility of our model in answering questions of palaeoecology, the theropod-bird transition, and the evolution of avian flight. Though the metric exhibits a strong correlation with lifestyle, morphospaces for PD-III curvatures overlap and so this metric should be considered alongside additional evidence.
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