Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kevin Padian
Summary: Our knowledge about the origin of birds significantly advanced in 1998 with the discovery of a fossilized dinosaur with feathers, which caused a sensation in scientific publications that year.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Matteo Fabbri, Guillermo Navalon, Roger B. J. Benson, Diego Pol, Jingmai O'Connor, Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar, Gregory M. Erickson, Mark A. Norell, Andrew Orkney, Matthew C. Lamanna, Samir Zouhri, Justine Becker, Amanda Emke, Cristiano Dal Sasso, Gabriele Bindellini, Simone Maganuco, Marco Auditore, Nizar Ibrahim
Summary: Aquatic adaptations have evolved independently multiple times from terrestrial vertebrate ancestors, and this study reveals that bone density can be used as a reliable indicator of aquatic habits in extinct species.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Zhikun Gai, Qiang Li, Humberto G. Ferron, Joseph N. Keating, Junqing Wang, Philip C. J. Donoghue, Min Zhu
Summary: Paired fins are a significant innovation that evolved in jawed vertebrates after diverging from jawless vertebrates. Extinct jawless armoured stem gnathostomes had various paired body-wall extensions, while osteostracans (sister to jawed vertebrates) are believed to have had the first true paired appendages in a pectoral position. The study shows that galeaspids (sister group to both osteostracans and jawed vertebrates) had three unpaired dorsal fins, a symmetrical hypochordal tail, and a pair of continuous ventrolateral fins. The ventrolateral fins are similar to paired fin flaps in other stem gnathostomes, supporting the fin-fold hypothesis for the origin of vertebrate paired appendages.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Zichuan Qin, Qi Zhao, Jonah N. Choiniere, James M. Clark, Michael J. Benton, Xing Xu
Summary: Research shows that Alvarersauroidea underwent rapid miniaturization during the Late Cretaceous, coinciding with the emergence of ants and termites, possibly driven by ecological changes during the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution.
Editorial Material
Neurosciences
Anton Reiner
Summary: This commentary discusses the main points made in Reiner's article on the possibility of theropod dinosaurs giving rise to intelligent descendants, and Herculano-Houzel's article on the potential monkey-like neuron numbers in the pallium of large theropods, and the implications for their intelligence.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Rodrigo T. Muller, Martin D. Ezcurra, Mauricio S. Garcia, Federico L. Agnolin, Michelle R. Stocker, Fernando E. Novas, Marina B. Soares, Alexander W. A. Kellner, Sterling J. Nesbitt
Summary: Studying the well-preserved partial skeleton of Venetoraptor gassenae provides a more comprehensive understanding of the skull and ecology of dinosaur and pterosaur precursors. The discovery of a sharp raptorial-like beak and long trenchant claws suggests the loss of quadrupedalism in these precursors. The morphological diversity of these precursors exceeds that of Triassic dinosaurs and resembles that of Triassic pterosaurs.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Emma M. Dunne, Alexander Farnsworth, Roger B. J. Benson, Pedro L. Godoy, Sarah E. Greene, Paul J. Valdes, Daniel J. Lunt, Richard J. Butler
Summary: The rise of dinosaurs as dominant components in terrestrial ecosystems was a significant event in the history of life. The drivers of their early evolution and diversity, however, remain poorly understood. This study suggests that the expansion of dinosaurs' distribution and abundance may have been driven by both opportunistic factors, such as the extinction of co-occurring species, and changes in global climatic distributions during the Triassic to Jurassic transition.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Christopher T. Griffin, Brenen M. Wynd, Darlington Munyikwa, Tim J. Broderick, Michel Zondo, Stephen Tolan, Max C. Langer, Sterling J. Nesbitt, Hazel R. Taruvinga
Summary: This study reports a new Carnian assemblage from Zimbabwe, including Africa's oldest definitive dinosaurs Mbiresaurus raathi. This finding suggests the existence of similar vertebrate fauna at high latitudes in Antarctica, and the dispersal of dinosaurs was influenced by paleolatitude-linked climatic barriers.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Faiza Benaouda, Ricardo Inacio, Chui Hua Lim, Haeeun Park, Thomas Pitcher, Mohamed A. Alhnan, Mazen M. S. Aly, Khuloud Al-Jamal, Ka-lung Chan, Rikhav P. Gala, Daniel Sebastia-Saez, Liang Cui, Tao Chen, Julie Keeble, Stuart A. Jones
Summary: This study demonstrates a novel method for needleless delivery of advanced therapies using a skin patch. By opening the skin appendages with a hypobaric chamber, direct delivery of vaccine antigens and drug nanoparticles was achieved. The patch was shown to enhance immune response to vaccine antigens and effectively reduce rat paw swelling.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Michael D. D'Emic, Patrick M. O'Connor, Riley S. Sombathy, Ignacio Cerda, Thomas R. Pascucci, David Varricchio, Diego Pol, Anjali Dave, Rodolfo A. Coria, Kristina A. Curry Rogers
Summary: In amniotes, adjustments to the rate of growth rather than its duration are considered as the primary developmental strategy underlying body size evolution. However, most previous studies lack a phylogenetic framework and focus on pairwise comparisons. Here, we present a large-scale phylogenetic comparative analysis of non-avialan theropod dinosaurs, revealing that changes in both growth rate and duration played significant roles in the evolution of body size disparity in these dinosaurs and potentially in amniotes as a whole.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Philip D. Mannion, Alex Farnsworth, Matthew T. Carrano, Sara Varela
Summary: The study shows that sauropods, compared to other dinosaurs, occupied climatic niches characterized by high temperatures and strongly bounded by minimum cold temperatures. This constrained their distribution and dispersal pathways to tropical areas, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. The greater availability of suitable habitat in southern continents, particularly in the Late Cretaceous, may explain the high diversity of sauropods there.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Patrick S. Druckenmiller, Gregory M. Erickson, Donald Brinkman, Caleb M. Brown, Jaelyn J. Eberle
Summary: The unexpected discovery of non-avian dinosaurs in Arctic and Antarctic settings has sparked debate about their reproductive capabilities at high latitudes. The study found evidence of dinosaur reproduction in northern Alaska, suggesting nonmigratory Arctic residents with specific life history strategies.
Article
Biology
Junki Yoshida, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, Mark A. Norell
Summary: Researchers have discovered a fossilized larynx of a dinosaur called Pinacosaurus grangeri, suggesting that non-avian dinosaurs may have had bird-like vocalization. This is the first laryngeal fossil from the Cretaceous dinosaur, providing insights into the vocal evolution in non-avian dinosaurs towards birds.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Antonio Ballell, Michael J. Benton, Emily J. Rayfield
Summary: This study investigates the dental morphofunctional diversity of early dinosaurs and predicts their diets using biomechanical and morphometric methods. The results suggest that early saurischians/theropods were carnivores, while sauropodomorphs underwent a dietary shift from carnivory to herbivory. Early ornithischians were likely omnivores. This early dietary diversity played a fundamental role in the rise of dinosaurs to ecological dominance.
Review
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Darren K. Griffin, Denis M. Larkin, Rebecca E. O'Connor, Michael N. Romanov
Summary: The similarity in genome organization between birds and dinosaurs suggests that dinosaurs may have had similar genetic structures, which could explain their diversity in appearance and function. The study of dinosaur genomics is important and can be inferred through comparative genomics with extant species. Birds and other reptiles have both large and small chromosomes in their genomes, with birds having a higher number of chromosomes. Recent research indicates that this genome organization pattern was likely established around 255 million years ago, and is also present in some turtle species.
Article
Dermatology
Matthew J. Davis, Gokul Srinivasan, Rachael Chacko, Sophie Chen, Anish Suvarna, Louis J. Vaickus, Veronica C. Torres, Sassan Hodge, Eunice Y. Chen, Sarah Preum, Kimberley S. Samkoe, Brock C. Christensen, Matthew R. Leboeuf, Joshua J. Levy
Summary: The development and application of AI algorithms are of great significance for the removal of cSCC, as they can improve operational efficiency and accuracy, especially for moderately and poorly differentiated tumors/ neoplasms. Further improvement is needed to maintain sensitivity to surrounding tissue and determine anatomical positioning.
EXPERIMENTAL DERMATOLOGY
(2024)
Article
Dermatology
Lingjing Chen, Qing Yu, Feiying Guo, Xuewen Wang, Zhenying Cai, Qiang Zhou
Summary: This study investigated the role and mechanisms of NTS in stress-induced hair growth inhibition. The results demonstrated that NTS effectively counteracted hair growth inhibition caused by stress and regulated the expression of multiple genes related to hair growth at the transcriptional level.
EXPERIMENTAL DERMATOLOGY
(2024)