ReviewCommunications biology2023
Rarity of molt evidence in early pennaraptoran dinosaurs suggests annual molt evolved later among Neornithes.
Review in Communications biology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Wing morphology of Anchiornis huxleyi and the evolution of molt strategies in paravian dinosaurs.Communications biology · 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
- Earliest evidence of avian primary feather moult.Biology letters · 2024Article
- Functional constraints on the number and shape of flight feathers.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
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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
Feathers are a primitive trait among pennaraptoran dinosaurs, which today are represented by crown birds (Neornithes), the only clade of dinosaurs to survive the end Cretaceous mass extinction. Feathers are central to many important functions and therefore, maintaining plumage function is of great importance for survival. Thus, molt - by which new feathers are formed to replace old ones, is an essential process. Our limited knowledge regarding molt in early pennaraptoran evolution is based largely on a single Microraptor specimen. A survey of 92 feathered non-avian dinosaur and stem bird fossils did not find additional molting evidence. Due to its longer duration, in ornithological collections evidence of molt is found more frequently in extant bird species with sequential molts compared to those with more rapid simultaneous molts. The low frequency of molt occurrence among fossil specimens resembles collections of bird species with simultaneous molts. The dearth of molt evidence in the forelimbs of pennaraptoran specimens may have interesting implications regarding molt strategy during early avian evolution, and suggests that the yearly molting cycle may have evolved later, among crown birds.
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