Quantitative patterns of morphological variation in the appendicular skeleton of the Early Cretaceous bird Confuciusornis

Abstract

Confuciusornis sanctus stands out among the remarkable diversity of birds of the Jehol biota (Lower Cretaceous, Liaoning Province, China). Its basal position in the phylogenetic tree of birds, combined with the exceptional number of well-preserved, largely complete and articulated specimens, makes it a perfect model system for studying the variation, development and life history of early Mesozoic birds. A comprehensive morphometric study (measurements of humerus, ulna, radius, femur and tibia) previously identified two distinct size classes of C. sanctus, while demonstrating the lack of statistical support of the association between this size dimorphism and the characteristic pair of long tail feathers present in some specimens. Four plausible explanations were discussed to account for the resultant size classes: the existence of more than one species in the sample; sexual size dimorphism; two size classes corresponding to attritional death assemblages; and/or a particular growth pattern similar to that inferred for non-avian dinosaurs. Here we present an expanded statistical analysis based on a larger sample of C. sanctus that substantiates previous interpretations, but also addresses the statistical association between the presence/absence of tail feathers and fore- and hind-limb allometry. We discuss the implication of the resulting quantitative patterns of morphological variation to understand better confuciusornithid taxonomy and the life history of C. sanctus.

Keywords:

• Confuciusornis
• life history
• Mesozoic birds
• morphometrics

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to all the institutions that granted access to their Confuciusornis material worldwide. The Eppley Foundation and Carl and Lynn Cooper provided funds for this investigation, and the Ministry of Education of Spain and the Fulbright Commission supported JML's research stay at the Dinosaur Institute.