Endocranial development in non-avian dinosaurs reveals an ontogenetic brain trajectory distinct from extant archosaurs.

ABSTRACT: Modern birds possess highly encephalized brains that evolved from non-avian dinosaurs. Evolutionary shifts in developmental timing, namely juvenilization of adult phenotypes, have been proposed as a driver of head evolution along the dinosaur-bird transition, including brain morphology. Testing this hypothesis requires a sufficient developmental sampling of brain morphology in non-avian dinosaurs. In this study, we harness brain endocasts of a postnatal growth series of the ornithischian dinosaur Psittacosaurus and several other immature and mature non-avian dinosaurs to investigate how evolutionary changes to brain development are implicated in the origin of the avian brain. Using three-dimensional characterization of neuroanatomical shape across archosaurian reptiles, we demonstrate that

SUBMITTER: King L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11358377 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature