IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v9y2018i1d10.1038_s41467-018-07621-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Medullary bone in an Early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird and discussion regarding its identification in fossils

Author

Listed:
  • Jingmai O’Connor

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment)

  • Gregory M. Erickson

    (Florida State University)

  • Mark Norell

    (American Museum of Natural History)

  • Alida M. Bailleul

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment)

  • Han Hu

    (Zoology, University of New England)

  • Zhonghe Zhou

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment)

Abstract

Medullary bone is an ephemeral type of bone tissue, today found only in sexually mature female birds, that provides a calcium reservoir for eggshell formation. The presence of medullary bone-like tissues in extant birds, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs distantly related to birds shows that caution must be exercised before concluding that fossils bear medullary bone. Here we describe a new specimen of pengornithid enantiornithine from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation. Consisting of an isolated left hindlimb, the three-dimensional preservation contrasts with the crushed preservation characteristic of most Jehol specimens. Histological examinations suggest this resulted from the presence of a thick layer of highly vascular bone spanning the medullary cavities of the femur and tibiotarsus, consistent with expectations for medullary bone in extant birds. Micro-computed tomographic scans reveal small amounts of the same tissue extending into the pedal phalanges. We consider the tissue to be homologous to the medullary bone of Neornithines.

Suggested Citation

  • Jingmai O’Connor & Gregory M. Erickson & Mark Norell & Alida M. Bailleul & Han Hu & Zhonghe Zhou, 2018. "Medullary bone in an Early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird and discussion regarding its identification in fossils," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-07621-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07621-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07621-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-018-07621-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-07621-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.