Flight pressure slows down the evolution of dinosaurs to birds

Tech 2023-06-07 09:19:57 Source: Network

Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, June 6th (Reporter Lu Chengkuan) How did dinosaurs evolve into birds that roamed the blue sky billions of years ago? On the 6th, the reporter learned from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that researchers at the institute found that the evolution from dinosaurs to birds was accompanied by a decrease in limb bone diversity and evolution speed, which was mainly influenced by the forelimbs. The flight pressure caused the evolution speed of primitive bird forelimbs to be relatively slower and have lower diversity

Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, June 6th (Reporter Lu Chengkuan) How did dinosaurs evolve into birds that roamed the blue sky billions of years ago? On the 6th, the reporter learned from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that researchers at the institute found that the evolution from dinosaurs to birds was accompanied by a decrease in limb bone diversity and evolution speed, which was mainly influenced by the forelimbs. The flight pressure caused the evolution speed of primitive bird forelimbs to be relatively slower and have lower diversity. The research results are published online in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

The transition from dinosaurs to birds is one of the most shocking events in the history of vertebrate evolution, involving numerous changes in the skeletal system, muscular system, and epidermal derivatives, most of which are related to the origin of flight.

"One of the most critical changes is the body shape change represented by the length of limb bones." Wang Min, the paper's communication and lead author, and a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, for example, from the overall trend, theropods that are closer to birds in evolution have relatively longer forelimbs.

Therefore, a systematic quantitative analysis of the dynamic evolution trajectory of limb bones in the process of bird origin is the key to our understanding of how dinosaurs flew into the blue sky and became birds, "said Wang Min.

By systematically comparing the limb bone diversity of three groups: birds, non avian parabirds, and non avian theropod dinosaurs, researchers found that early bird limb bone diversity was the lowest, while non avian theropod dinosaurs had the highest overall diversity, which was mainly reflected in their forelimbs.

At the same time, researchers also calculated the evolution rate of limb bones in Mesozoic theropod dinosaurs, including birds, and similar patterns emerged. The overall evolution rate of the forelimbs slows down as they approach the origin node of birds, and this trend is most evident in the forelimbs.

However, this discovery is vastly different from the "common sense" of evolutionary biology.

"Generally speaking, the emergence of jaw, fish landing on land, reptiles flying into the blue sky and other features or morphological functions with the meaning of 'evolutionary innovation' will speed up the evolution of a certain group and increase its diversity." Wang Min said that the reason is that these "innovations" can help organisms quickly enter a new ecological niche.

So, how can we explain the decrease in limb bone morphological diversity and evolutionary rate in early birds?

Researchers believe that the lack of diversity in limb bone morphology and the decrease in evolution rate in early birds were mainly caused by the "drag" of their forelimbs, as the forelimbs of primitive birds were only able to undergo limited changes within a framework suitable for aerodynamic effects under the selection of flight.

Wang Min stated that this study provides quantitative data support for the hypothesis previously proposed by the academic community that at the beginning of bird evolution, the shoulder belt evolved first and the belt evolved later.

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