Early Jurassic origin of avian endothermy and thermophysiological diversity in dinosaurs

作者：Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Juan L. Cantalapiedra, Lewis A. Jones, Sara Gamboa, Sofía Galván, Alexander Farnsworth, Paul J. Valdes, Graciela Sotelo, Sara Varela · 发表于：Current Biology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.051 · 被引用次数：17 · 研究领域：Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology、Evolution and Paleontology Studies、Amphibian and Reptile Biology

A fundamental question in dinosaur evolution is how they adapted to long-term climatic shifts during the Mesozoic and when they developed environmentally independent, avian-style acclimatization, becoming endothermic. 1 , 2 The ability of warm-blooded dinosaurs to flourish in harsher environments, including cold, high-latitude regions, 3 , 4 raises intriguing questions about the origins of key innovations shared with modern birds, 5 , 6 indicating that the development of homeothermy (keeping constant body temperature) and endothermy (generating body heat) played a crucial role in their ecological diversification. 7 Despite substantial evidence across scientific disciplines (anatomy, 8 reproduction, 9 energetics, 10 biomechanics, 10 osteohistology, 11 palaeobiogeography, 12 geochemistry, 13 , 14 and soft tissues 15 , 16 , 17 ), a consensus on dinosaur thermophysiology remains elusive. 1 , 12 , 15 , 17 , 18 , 19 Differential thermophysiological strategies among terrestrial tetrapods allow endotherms (birds and mammals) to expand their latitudinal range (from the tropics to polar regions), owing to their reduced reliance on environmental temperature. 20 By contrast, most reptilian lineages (squamates, turtles, and crocodilians) and amphibians are predominantly constrained by temperature in regions closer to the tropics. 21 Determining when this macroecological pattern emerged in the avian lineage relies heavily on identifying the origin of these key physiological traits. Combini...