The coevolution of rostral keratin and tooth distribution in dinosaurs.

ABSTRACT: Teeth evolved early in vertebrate evolution, and their morphology reflects important specializations in diet and ecology among species. The toothless jaws (edentulism) in extant birds likely coevolved with beak keratin, which functionally replaced teeth. However, extinct dinosaurs lost teeth multiple times independently and exhibited great variation in toothrow distribution and rhamphotheca-like keratin structures. Here, we use rostral jawbone surface texture as a proxy for rostral keratin covering and phylogenetic comparative models to test for the influence of rostral keratin on toothrow distribution in Mesozoic dinosaurs. We find that the evolution of rostral keratin covering explains partial toothrow reduction but not jaw toothlessness. Toothrow reduction preceded the evolution of rost

SUBMITTER: Aguilar-Pedrayes I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10792295 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature