Abstract Summary
The evolutionary radiation of birds has produced incredible morphological variation, including a huge range of skull form and function. Investigating how this variation arose with respect to non-avian dinosaurs is key to understanding how birds achieved their remarkable success after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.
Technical Context
The study utilizes a high-dimensional geometric morphometric approach to quantify the shape of the skull in unprecedented detail across 354 extant and 37 extinct avian and non-avian species. This allows for a detailed analysis of the evolutionary changes that occurred during the transition from theropod dinosaurs to birds.
Source & Citation
10.1371/journal.pbio.3000801
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000801