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The posture of the earliest dinosaurs is thought to be bipedal whereas their pseudosuchian relatives and stem archosaurs are thought to be typically quadrupedal. Therefore, the transition from quadrupedality to bipedality lies somewhere between the origin of Avemetatarsalia (bird-line archosaurs) and Dinosauria. However, studying this transition is hampered by the lack of forelimb fossils from many of the close relatives of dinosaurs and it is not clear if the morphology of the few dinosauromorphs that have forelimb material is unique or represents the plesiomorphic condition. New forelimb fossils of dinosaur relatives and careful assessments of their osteology are sorely needed to help address this knowledge gap. Here we present the first pectoral (left scapulocoracoid) and forelimb (right humerus) bones of an avemetatarsalian from the upper portion of the ChaÃares Formation of Argentina. We hypothesize that the bones pertain to the important early ornithodiran Lagerpeton chanarensis, but the scapulocoracoid and humerus does not precisely match any non-dinosaurian avemetatarsalian. The bones were prepared from a concretion that only consisted of Lagerpeton chanarensis and the cynodont Massetognathus pascuali. We identify the bones as belonging to Lagerpeton chanarensis because the distal end of the femur possesses an inflated crista tibiofibularis â a lagerpetid character state â and the newly recognized pectoral and forelimb bones are generally similar to those of the lagerpetid Dromomeron romeri and Ixalerpeton polesinensis, with tall and constricted anteroposteriorly narrow scapular blades and a humerus with a highly asymmetrical proximal end. The length of humerus and the proportions of the proximal and distal end in Lagerpeton chanarensis are also more similar to that of Dromomeron romeri. Overall, the scapulocoracoids and humeri of lagerpetids are similar in proportion across taxa, but comparing the length of the forelimbs to the hindlimbs is hampered by the lack of articulated or unambiguously associated individuals of any member of the group. Currently, it is still not clear if the anatomy of the pectoral girdle and forelimb of lagerpetids, and thus posture, is unique for lagerpetids or represents the ancestral condition for ornithodirans.
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https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2020.3150Bird necks display unparalleled levels of morphological diversity compared to other vertebrates, yet it is unclear what factors have structured this variation. Using three-dimensional geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistics, we show that the avian cervical column is a hierarchical morpho-functional appendage, with varying magnitudes of ecologically driven osteological variation at different scales of organization. Contrary to expectations given the widely varying ecological functions of necks in different species, we find that regional modularity of the avian neck is highly conserved, with an overall structural blueprint that is significantly altered only by the most mechanically demanding ecological functions. Nevertheless, the morphologies of vertebrae within subregions of the neck show more prominent signals of adaptation to ecological pressures. We also find that both neck length allometry and the nature of neck elongation in birds are different from other vertebrates. In contrast with mammals, neck length scales isometrically with head mass and, contrary to previous work, we show that neck elongation in birds is achieved predominantly by increasing vertebral lengths rather than counts. Birds therefore possess a cervical spine that may be unique in its versatility among extant vertebrates, one that, since the origin of flight, has adapted to function as a surrogate forelimb in varied ecological niches.
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