A new zygodactylid species indicates the persistence of stem passerines into the early Oligocene in North America.
Time Factors; Animals; Species Specificity; Fossils; Body Size; Skull/anatomy & histology; *Phylogeny; Geography; North America; *Paleobiogeography; *Paleogene; *Passeriformes; *Zygodactylidae; Extremities/anatomy & histology; Feathers/anatomy & histology; Passeriformes/*classification; Spine/anatomy & histology
BACKGROUND: The lake deposits of the informal Ruby Paper Shale unit, part of the Renova Formation of Montana, have yielded abundant plant fossils that document Late Eocene - Early Oligocene global cooling in western North America. A nearly complete small bird with feather impressions was recovered from this unit in in 1959, but has only been informally mentioned. RESULTS: Here we describe this fossil and identify it as a new species of Zygodactylus, a stem lineage passerine with a zygodactyl foot. The new taxon shows morphological traits that are convergent on crown Passeriformes, including an elongate hallux, reduced body size, and a comparative shortening of proximal limb elements. The fossil documents the persistence of this lineage into the earliest Oligocene (~ 33 Ma) in North America. It is the latest occurring North American species of a group that persists in Europe until the Miocene. CONCLUSIONS: Eocene-Oligocene global cooling is known to have significantly remodeled both Palearctic and Nearctic mammal faunas but its impact on related avifaunas has remained poorly understood. The geographic and temporal range expansion provided by the new taxon together with avian other taxa with limited fossil records suggests a similar pattern of retraction in North America followed by Europe.
Hieronymus Tobin L; Waugh David A; Clarke Julia A
BMC evolutionary biology
2019
2019-01
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-018-1319-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1186/s12862-018-1319-6</a>
Contributions of paleorheumatology to understanding contemporary disease.
Humans; Animals; Immunohistochemistry; Body Temperature; Phylogeny; Osteoarthritis/pathology; Radiography; Fossils; Bone Remodeling; DNA; DNA/genetics/isolation & purification; *Paleopathology/instrumentation/methods; *Rheumatology; Bone and Bones/chemistry/diagnostic imaging/immunology; Bone Diseases/*pathology; Collagen/immunology/isolation & purification; Dinosaurs; Gout/pathology; Joint Diseases/*pathology; Mammals; Microscopy/methods; Rheumatic Diseases/pathology; Imaging; Arthritis; Three-Dimensional; Sequence Analysis; Infectious/pathology; Reactive/pathology
As paleopathology has evolved from observational speculation to analysis of testable hypotheses, so too has recognition of its contribution to vertebrate paleontology. In the presence of significant structural and density variation (between matrix and osseous structures), x-rays provide an additional perspective of osseous response to stress and disease. As film techniques are time and cost expensive, fluoroscopy has proven a valuable alternative. Radiologic techniques also allow non-invasive "sectioning" of specimens, illustrating significant internal detail. The object can be "split" on a plane and the two portions rotated to "open" the image. This three-dimensional approach now can be applied to other forms of sequential data to their facilitate 3-dimensional representation graphically or with solid representations. Antigen and microstructure may be well preserved in fossils. Molecular preservation with retention of helical structure and sensitivity to collagenase has been demonstrated in 10,000 year old collagen. Antigen has been extracted from 100 million year old bone and documented, in situ, in 11,000 year old bone. If the appropriate site in the tissue is assessed, if antigen is still present, and if the appropriate antisera is utilized, fixation of the antibody to the specimen can be detected. Minute amounts of DNA can be amplified and analyzed. Recovery of DNA from a 40,000 year old mammoth, 17,000 year old bison and from 25 million year old insects provides opportunity for cloning and independent assessment of relationships. Implications of available technology focuses direction for development of collaborative approaches.
Rothschild B
Reumatismo
2002
2002-09
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.4081/reumatismo.2002.272" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.4081/reumatismo.2002.272</a>
Qualitative skeletal correlates of wing shape in extant birds (Aves: Neoaves).
*Flight; Animal; Animal/*anatomy & histology/physiology; Animals; Biological Evolution; Birds/*anatomy & histology/classification/*physiology; Bone and Bones/anatomy & histology; Feathers; Fossils; Phylogeny; Wings
BACKGROUND: Among living fliers (birds, bats, and insects), birds display relatively high aspect ratios, a dimensionless shape variable that distinguishes long and narrow vs. short and broad wings. Increasing aspect ratio results in a functional tradeoff between low induced drag (efficient cruise) and increased wing inertia (difficult takeoff). Given the wide scope of its functional effects, the pattern of aspect ratio evolution is an important factor that contributes to the substantial ecological and phylogenetic diversity of living birds. However, because the feathers that define the wingtip (and hence wingspan and aspect ratio) often do not fossilize, resolution in the pattern of avian wing shape evolution is obscured by missing information. Here I use a comparative approach to investigate the relationship between skeletal proxies of flight feather attachment and wing shape. RESULTS: An accessory lobe of the internal index process of digit II-1, a bony correlate of distal primary attachment, shows weak but statistically significant relationships to aspect ratio and mass independent of other skeletal morphology. The dorsal phalangeal fossae of digit II-1, which house distal primaries VIII and IX, also show a trend of increased prominence with higher aspect ratio. Quill knobs on the ulna are examined concurrently, but do not show consistent signal with respect to wing shape. CONCLUSIONS: Although quill knobs are cited as skeletal correlates of flight performance in birds, their relationship to wing shape is inconsistent among extant taxa, and may reflect diverging selection pressures acting on a conserved architecture. In contrast, correlates of distal primary feather attachment on the major digit show convergent responses to increasing aspect ratio. In light of the diversity of musculoskeletal and integumentary mophology that underlies wing shape in different avian clades, it is unlikely that a single skeletal feature will show consistent predictive power across Neoaves. Confident inference of wing shape in basal ornithurine birds will require multiple lines of evidence, together with an understanding of clade-specific evolutionary trends within the crown.
Hieronymus Tobin L
BMC evolutionary biology
2015
2015-02
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-015-0303-7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1186/s12862-015-0303-7</a>
Relative growth rates of predator and prey dinosaurs reflect effects of predation.
Aging/physiology; Animals; Dinosaurs/*growth & development; Fossils; Predatory Behavior/*physiology; Sexual Maturation; Species Specificity
Hadrosaurs grew rapidly, and quantifying their growth is key to understanding life-history interactions between predators and prey during the Late Cretaceous. In this study, we longitudinally sampled a sequence of lines of arrested growth (LAGs) from an essentially full-grown hadrosaur Hypacrosaurus stebingeri (MOR 549). Spatial locations of LAGs in the femoral and tibial transverse sections of MOR 549 were measured and circumferences were calculated. For each bone, a time series of circumference data was fitted to several stochastic, discrete growth models. Our results suggest that the femur and the tibia of this specimen of Hypacrosaurus probably followed a Gompertz curve and that LAGs reportedly missing from early ontogeny were obscured by perimedullary resorption. In this specimen, death occurred at 13 years and took approximately 10-12 years to reach 95 per cent asymptotic size. The age at growth inflection, which is a proxy for reproductive maturity, occurred at approximately 2-3 years. Comparisons with several small and large predatory theropods reveal that MOR 549 grew faster and matured sooner than they did. These results suggest that Hypacrosaurus was able to partly avoid predators by outgrowing them.
Cooper Lisa Noelle; Lee Andrew H; Taper Mark L; Horner John R
Proceedings. Biological sciences
2008
2008-11
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.0912" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1098/rspb.2008.0912</a>
First European exposure to syphilis: the Dominican Republic at the time of Columbian contact.
15th Century; 16th Century; Ancient; Bone and Bones/pathology; Congenital/diagnosis/history; Diagnosis; Differential; Dominican Republic; Europe; Fossils; History; Humans; Syphilis; Syphilis/diagnosis/*history/transmission; Tooth/pathology
Recognition of syphilis in Europe in the late 15th century and its prior absence suggest New World origin. Skeletal populations were examined from sites with documented Columbian contact in the Dominican Republic. Examination of 536 skeletal remains revealed periosteal reaction characteristic of treponemal disease in 6%-14% of the afflicted population. Findings were identical to that previously noted in confirmed syphilis-affected populations and distinctive from those associated with yaws and bejel: it was a low population frequency phenomenon, affecting an average of 1.7-2.6 bone groups, often asymmetric and sparing hands and feet, but associated with significant tibial remodeling. While findings diagnostic of syphilis have been reported in the New World, actual demonstration of syphilis in areas where Columbus actually had contact was missing, until now. The evidence is consistent with this site as the point of initial contact of syphilis and of its subsequent spread from the New World to the Old.
Rothschild B M; Calderon F L; Coppa A; Rothschild C
Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
2000
2000-10
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1086/318158" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1086/318158</a>
Eocene evolution of whale hearing.
*Biological Evolution; *Fossils; Air; Animals; Ear/*anatomy & histology/*physiology; EVOLUTION (Biology); FOSSILS; HEARING; Hearing/*physiology; MAMMALS; Mammals/anatomy & histology/physiology; Phylogeny; SOUND; Water; WHALES; Whales/*anatomy & histology/*physiology
The origin of whales (order Cetacea) is one of the best-documented examples of macroevolutionary change in vertebrates. As the earliest whales became obligately marine, all of their organ systems adapted to the new environment. The fossil record indicates that this evolutionary transition took less than 15 million years, and that different organ systems followed different evolutionary trajectories. Here we document the evolutionary changes that took place in the sound transmission mechanism of the outer and middle ear in early whales. Sound transmission mechanisms change early on in whale evolution and pass through a stage (in pakicetids) in which hearing in both air and water is unsophisticated. This intermediate stage is soon abandoned and is replaced (in remingtonocetids and protocetids) by a sound transmission mechanism similar to that in modern toothed whales. The mechanism of these fossil whales lacks sophistication, and still retains some of the key elements that land mammals use to hear airborne sound.
Nummela Sirpa; Thewissen J G M; Bajpai Sunil; Hussain S Taseer; Kumar Kishor
Nature
2004
2004-08
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/nature02720" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1038/nature02720</a>
Epidemiologic study of tumors in dinosaurs.
*Dinosaurs; Animals; Bone and Bones/diagnostic imaging; Fossils; Neoplasms/classification/diagnostic imaging/*epidemiology/*veterinary; Tomography; X-Ray Computed
Occasional reports in isolated fragments of dinosaur bones have suggested that tumors might represent a population phenomenon. Previous study of humans has demonstrated that vertebral radiology is a powerful diagnostic tool for population screening. The epidemiology of tumors in dinosaurs was here investigated by fluoroscopically screening dinosaur vertebrae for evidence of tumors. Computerized tomography (CT) and cross-sections were obtained where appropriate. Among more than 10,000 specimens x-rayed, tumors were only found in Cretaceous hadrosaurs (duck-billed dinosaurs). These included hemangiomas and metastatic cancer (previously identified in dinosaurs), desmoplastic fibroma, and osteoblastoma. The epidemiology of tumors in dinosaurs seems to reflect a familial pattern. A genetic propensity or environmental mutagens are suspected.
Rothschild B M; Tanke D H; Helbling M 2nd; Martin L D
Die Naturwissenschaften
2003
2003-11
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-003-0473-9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1007/s00114-003-0473-9</a>
Macroevolutionary developmental biology: Embryos, fossils, and phylogenies.
*Embryo; *Fossils; *Phylogeny; Animals; Developmental Biology/*methods; embryos; evolutionary developmental biology; fossils; macroevolution; Models; Nonmammalian; phylogenetic comparative methods; Statistical; Vertebrates
The field of evolutionary developmental biology is broadly focused on identifying the genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying morphological diversity. Connecting the genotype with the phenotype means that evo-devo research often considers a wide range of evidence, from genetics and morphology to fossils. In this commentary, we provide an overview and framework for integrating fossil ontogenetic data with developmental data using phylogenetic comparative methods to test macroevolutionary hypotheses. We survey the vertebrate fossil record of preserved embryos and discuss how phylogenetic comparative methods can integrate data from developmental genetics and paleontology. Fossil embryos provide limited, yet critical, developmental data from deep time. They help constrain when developmental innovations first appeared during the history of life and also reveal the order in which related morphologies evolved. Phylogenetic comparative methods provide a powerful statistical approach that allows evo-devo researchers to infer the presence of nonpreserved developmental traits in fossil species and to detect discordant evolutionary patterns and processes across levels of biological organization.
Organ Chris L; Cooper Lisa Noelle; Hieronymus Tobin L
Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists
2015
2015-10
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/dvdy.24318" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1002/dvdy.24318</a>
Sound transmission in archaic and modern whales: anatomical adaptations for underwater hearing.
*Adaptation; *Ear/anatomy & histology/physiology; *Whales/anatomy & histology/physiology; Animals; Biological Evolution; Fossils; Hearing/*physiology; Phonetics; Physiological; Sound; Water
The whale ear, initially designed for hearing in air, became adapted for hearing underwater in less than ten million years of evolution. This study describes the evolution of underwater hearing in cetaceans, focusing on changes in sound transmission mechanisms. Measurements were made on 60 fossils of whole or partial skulls, isolated tympanics, middle ear ossicles, and mandibles from all six archaeocete families. Fossil data were compared with data on two families of modern mysticete whales and nine families of modern odontocete cetaceans, as well as five families of noncetacean mammals. Results show that the outer ear pinna and external auditory meatus were functionally replaced by the mandible and the mandibular fat pad, which posteriorly contacts the tympanic plate, the lateral wall of the bulla. Changes in the ear include thickening of the tympanic bulla medially, isolation of the tympanoperiotic complex by means of air sinuses, functional replacement of the tympanic membrane by a bony plate, and changes in ossicle shapes and orientation. Pakicetids, the earliest archaeocetes, had a land mammal ear for hearing in air, and used bone conduction underwater, aided by the heavy tympanic bulla. Remingtonocetids and protocetids were the first to display a genuine underwater ear where sound reached the inner ear through the mandibular fat pad, the tympanic plate, and the middle ear ossicles. Basilosaurids and dorudontids showed further aquatic adaptations of the ossicular chain and the acoustic isolation of the ear complex from the skull. The land mammal ear and the generalized modern whale ear are evolutionarily stable configurations, two ends of a process where the cetacean mandible might have been a keystone character.
Nummela Sirpa; Thewissen J G M; Bajpai Sunil; Hussain Taseer; Kumar Kishor
Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007)
2007
2007-06
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/ar.20528" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1002/ar.20528</a>
Cranial shape in fruit, nectar, and exudate feeders: implications for interpreting the fossil record.
*Dentition; *Diet; *Fruit; Animals; Biological Evolution; Chiroptera; Discriminant Analysis; Fossils; Primates; Skull/*anatomy & histology; Species Specificity
At least 29 species of fossil primates have been referred to fruit, nectar, and/or exudate feeding dietary niches. Many studies have detailed the morphological correlates of fruit feeding in comparison to insectivory and folivory. In contrast, few studies have sought to differentiate the morphological correlates of fruit feeding from those of nectar and exudate feeding. This study investigates the differences between fruit, nectar, and exudate feeders using 22 cranial and dentary shape variables representing 28 species of living marsupials, bats, and primates. Discriminant function analysis is used to investigate the differences between these dietary categories using both the complete data set and a reduced data set composed of variables that might reasonably be available from fragmentary fossil material. The success rates of post-hoc classifications are 94 and 88%, respectively. These results demonstrate that it is possible to discriminate among fruit, nectar, and exudate feeders among fossil taxa with a reasonable degree of certainty using the data and techniques outlined here. Nectar feeders exhibit a unique combination of features that are associated with reduced masticatory strength and their role as pollination agents. Exudate feeder skulls and dentaries exhibit a combination of features that reflect the high stresses encountered by the anterior dentition through bark gouging behavior. Fruit feeders are morphologically diverse, exhibiting cranial and mandibular shape values that overlap with both nectar and exudate feeders. It is suggested that this diversity reflects the variety of physical properties represented among fruits, and the tendency for individual frugivore species to specialize on particular fruits.
Dumont E R
American journal of physical anthropology
1997
1997-02
Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199702)102:2%3C187::AID-AJPA4%3E3.0.CO;2-W" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199702)102:2%3C187::AID-AJPA4%3E3.0.CO;2-W</a>