Nature Communications (Mar 2017)

Cellular preservation of musculoskeletal specializations in the Cretaceous bird Confuciusornis

  • Baoyu Jiang,
  • Tao Zhao,
  • Sophie Regnault,
  • Nicholas P. Edwards,
  • Simon C. Kohn,
  • Zhiheng Li,
  • Roy A. Wogelius,
  • Michael J. Benton,
  • John R. Hutchinson

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14779
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Birds have a more crouched posture compared to their theropod dinosaur ancestors. Here, Jiang and colleagues describe a lower hindlimb of the Early Cretaceous birdConfuciusorniswith soft tissues apparently preserved even as molecules, indicating a somewhat more modern posture in ancient birds.