ArticleNature ecology & evolution2023
Low morphological disparity and decelerated rate of limb size evolution close to the origin of birds.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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5 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Great expectations: altricial developmental strategies are associated with more flexible evolution of limb skeleton proportions in birds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Forelimb reduction and digit loss were evolutionarily decoupled in oviraptorosaurian theropod dinosaurs.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Toward a Comprehensive Anatomical Matrix for Crown Birds: Phylogenetic Insights from the Pectoral Girdle and Forelimb Skeleton.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Enhanced flight performance and adaptive evolution of Mesozoic giant cicadas.Science advances · 2024Article
- Structural shifts in primate Y.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The origin of birds from theropod dinosaurs involves many changes in musculoskeletal anatomy and epidermal structures, including multiple instances of convergence and homology-related traits that contribute to the refinement of flight capability. Changes in limb sizes and proportions are important for locomotion (for example, the forelimb for bird flight); thus, understanding these patterns is central to investigating the transition from terrestrial to volant theropods. Here we analyse the patterns of morphological disparity and the evolutionary rate of appendicular limbs along avialan stem lineages using phylogenetic comparative approaches. Contrary to the traditional wisdom that an evolutionary innovation like flight would promote and accelerate evolvability, our results show a shift to low disparity and decelerated rate near the origin of avialans that is largely ascribed to the evolutionarily constrained forelimb. These results suggest that natural selection shaped patterns of limb evolution close to the origin of avialans in a way that may reflect the winged forelimb 'blueprint' associated with powered flight.
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