ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2020
Osteohistological analyses reveal diverse strategies of theropod dinosaur body-size evolution.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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30 citing papers in PubMed, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Osteohistology of two phorusrhacids reveals uninterrupted growth strategy.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Growth dynamics, skeletochronology, and histovariability of the theropod dinosaur Berthasaura leopoldinae.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Evolutionary decoupling between cranial shape and size underlies divergent evolutionary pathways in Cretaceous apex and meso-predator theropods.Communications biology · 2026Article
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- Growing with dinosaurs: a review of dinosaur reproduction and ontogeny.Biology letters · 2025Review
- Cursorial ecomorphology and temporal patterns in theropod dinosaur evolution during the mid-Cretaceous.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- The evolution of femoral morphology in giant non-avian theropod dinosaurs.Paleobiology · 2024Article
- Morphological disparity and structural performance of the dromaeosaurid skull informs ecology and evolutionary history.BMC ecology and evolution · 2024Article
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- Palaeoecological deductions from osteohistology.Biology letters · 2023Review
- Turtle body size evolution is determined by lineage-specific specializations rather than global trends.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- High-energy synchrotron-radiation-based X-ray micro-tomography enables non-destructive and micro-scale palaeohistological assessment of macro-scale fossil dinosaur bones.Journal of synchrotron radiation · 2023Article
- Bone histology of Neogene angulate tortoises (Testudines: Testudinidae) from South Africa: palaeobiological and skeletochronological implications.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Osteohistology of a Triassic dinosaur population reveals highly variable growth trajectories typified early dinosaur ontogeny.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Interelemental osteohistological variation inPeerJ · 2022Article
- Large-bodied ornithomimosaurs inhabited Appalachia during the Late Cretaceous of North America.PloS one · 2022Article
- From developing to developed: Mechanisms of health inequalities among seniors in China and Japan under macro-field control.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The independent evolution of gigantism among dinosaurs has been a topic of long-standing interest, but it remains unclear if gigantic theropods, the largest bipeds in the fossil record, all achieved massive sizes in the same manner, or through different strategies. We perform multi-element histological analyses on a phylogenetically broad dataset sampled from eight theropod families, with a focus on gigantic tyrannosaurids and carcharodontosaurids, to reconstruct the growth strategies of these lineages and test if particular bones consistently preserve the most complete growth record. We find that in skeletally mature gigantic theropods, weight-bearing bones consistently preserve extensive growth records, whereas non-weight-bearing bones are remodelled and less useful for growth reconstruction, contrary to the pattern observed in smaller theropods and some other dinosaur clades. We find a heterochronic pattern of growth fitting an acceleration model in tyrannosaurids, with allosauroid carcharodontosaurids better fitting a model of hypermorphosis. These divergent growth patterns appear phylogenetically constrained, representing extreme versions of the growth patterns present in smaller coelurosaurs and allosauroids, respectively. This provides the first evidence of a lack of strong mechanistic or physiological constraints on size evolution in the largest bipeds in the fossil record and evidence of one of the longest-living individual dinosaurs ever documented.
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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.