Université de Fribourg

Birds have peramorphic skulls, too: anatomical network analyses reveal oppositional heterochronies in avian skull evolution

Plateau, Olivia ; Foth, Christian

In: Communications Biology, 2020, vol. 3, no. 1, p. 195

In contrast to the vast majority of reptiles, the skulls of adult crown birds are characterized by a high degree of integration due to bone fusion, e.g., an ontogenetic event generating a net reduction in the number of bones. To understand this process in an evolutionary context, we investigate postnatal ontogenetic changes in the skulls of crown bird and non-avian theropods using anatomical...

Université de Fribourg

Modularity of the neck in birds (Aves)

Terray, Léa ; Plateau, Olivia ; Abourachid, Anick ; Böhmer, Christine ; Delapré, Arnaud ; la Bernardie, Xavier de ; Cornette, Raphaël

In: Evolutionary Biology, 2020, p. -

The neck connects the head and the trunk and is the key structure allowing all movements of the head. The neck morphology of birds is the most variable among living tetrapods, including significant differences in the number and shape of the cervical vertebrae. Despite these differences, according to the literature, three morphofunctional regions (i.e., modules) have been identified along the...

Université de Fribourg

New paroxyclaenid mammals from the early Eocene of the Paris Basin (France) shed light on the origin and evolution of these endemic European cimolestans

Solé, Floréal ; Plateau, Olivia ; Le Verger, Kévin ; Phélizon, Alain

In: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 2019, vol. 17, no. 20, p. 1711–1743

We present new species of an enigmatic family of mammals, which is endemic to Europe, the Paroxyclaenidae: Merialus bruneti sp. nov., Fratrodon tresvauxi gen. et sp. nov., Paraspaniella gunnelli gen. et sp. nov., and Sororodon tresvauxae gen. et sp. nov. The fossils described come from six localities of the Ypresian of the Paris Basin (France): Pourcy (MP7), Mutigny, Avenay, Condé-en-Brie...