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The Evolution of Birds with Implications from New Fossil Evidences

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The Biology of the Avian Respiratory System

Abstract

Birds have evolved on the planet for over 150 million years and become the most speciose clade of modern vertebrates. Their biological success has been ascribed to important evolutionary novelties including feathers, powered flight, and respiratory system, some of which have a deep evolutionary history even before the origin of birds. The last two decades have witnessed a wealth of exceptionally preserved feathered non-avian dinosaurs and primitive birds, which provide the most compelling evidence supporting the hypothesis that birds are descended from theropod dinosaurs. A handful of Mesozoic bird fossils have demonstrated how birds achieved their enormous biodiversity after diverging from their theropod relatives. On basis of recent fossil discoveries, we review how these new findings add to our understanding of the early avian evolution.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Xing Xu, Gerald Mayr, and Oliver Rauhut for sharing specimen photographs and Brain Choo for the illustration of Yi qi. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91514302, 41502002) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association (CAS, 2016073).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China

    Min Wang & Zhonghe Zhou

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  1. Min Wang
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  2. Zhonghe Zhou
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Correspondence to Min Wang .

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  1. Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    John N. Maina

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Wang, M., Zhou, Z. (2017). The Evolution of Birds with Implications from New Fossil Evidences. In: Maina, J. (eds) The Biology of the Avian Respiratory System. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44153-5_1

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