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REVIEW Broader Ramifications of Functional Hypotheses, Let Alone the Lack of Supporting Phylogenetic Evidence, Is Typical of Much of This Work Notornis, 2008, Vol. 55: 115-116 0029-4470 © The Ornithological Society of New Zealand, Inc. 115 REVIEW broader ramifications of functional hypotheses, let alone the lack of supporting phylogenetic evidence, is typical of much of this work. Feathered dinosaurs. The origin of birds. The format of “Feathered dinosaurs” involves 9 short text chapters followed by the individual John Long & Peter Schouten species section. These text chapters are illustrated with miniature versions of the reconstructions Illustrated by P. Schouten. CSIRO Publishing, from the species section. The 1st chapter, which is Collingwood, Victoria. 2008. ISBN 9780643094345 entitled “Dinosaurs, Darwin and fossils”, touches 193pp. Hard Cover AU$49.95 only briefly on the evolutionary relationships of dinosaurs and birds. I agree with the authors that This book by the prolific Australian palaeontologist the dinosaur-avian relationship is overwhelmingly John Long and the wildlife artist Peter Schouten supported by the majority of both the evidence and is one of several that describe the transition from the scientific community, but alternative viewpoints non-avian to avian dinosaurs (e.g. Paul 2002; are still surfacing in reputable journals (e.g. Feduccia Currie et al. 2004; Chiappe 2007; Chang et al. 2008), et al. 2005; 2007). Some of these alternatives (e.g. but to my knowledge is the first that is structured Feduccia et al. 2005) even question the existence of largely around individual species of feathered feathered dinosaurs, arguing that birdlike forms theropods. The heart of the book is the illustrations such as Velociraptor form a clade with birds that by Peter Schouten, whose previous work includes arose independently from the rest of the theropods. other books on extinct animals. Given the volume This line of reasoning resembles that of intelligent of literature on feathered dinosaurs in both the design by focusing on missing detail while ignoring technical and popular literature, it is something of a overwhelming contrary evidence. surprise that the status of these animals is still seen The remaining 8 text chapters focus on the main as controversial by some scientists. clades of coelurosaurian theropods. The rate of new The relationship between birds and dinosaurs fossil discoveries, especially from China, is such has always been hotly debated, despite the fact that any new publication is likely to contain novel that since the mid-1980s phylogenetic analyses information, but the authors appear to have made have consistently shown birds to be deeply nested every effort to include recent work that in many (no pun intended) within the theropod dinosaurs cases has changed our understanding of several (Gauthier & Padian 1985). Papers in high profile groups. For example, the first tyrannosaurs were journals persistently criticized this relationship both much smaller and more widespread than throughout the 1990s, although very few of these previously thought, while some compsognathids offered alternative phylogenetic hypotheses. Those achieved much larger sizes than their better known interested in the history of this heated phylogenetic relatives. Groups that were once considered to debate should see Padian and Chiappe (1998). One be depauperate evolutionary oddities, such as of my favourite articles from this period suggests therizinosaurs and oviraptosaurs, have turned out that the presence of crocodilian hepatic-piston to be speciose and ecologically diverse. The text in diaphragmatic lung ventilation in non-avian these chapters includes fascinating detail on some theropods poses “fundamental problems” for a of the fossils themselves, such as the oviraptorid relationship between these dinosaurs and birds, as that died while brooding a clutch of eggs, and the transitional forms between this mode of respiration tiny troodontid Mei long that was fossilized in a and the avian system of abdominal air sacs powered birdlike sleeping pose. by costal muscles would not be functionally viable The largest section of the book is titled “The (Ruben et al. 1997). The authors were aware that the dinosaurs illustrated.” This section covers about 80 pubis was rotated posteriorly in some coelurosaurian species, and involves a double-page spread format theropods, but felt that this was not functionally in which the bulk of the space is taken up by a equivalent to the marked opisthopubic condition single reconstruction. The text for each species is seen in birds. Ruben and colleagues did not discuss informative but brief, and includes an artist’s note the mode of lung ventilation in ornithischian explaining the reconstruction. Details on taxonomic dinosaurs, in which, as their name suggests the groupings, age and fossil locality are also provided. pubic bone lies posteriorly against the ischium as in The reconstructions avoid the garishness and birds (Benton 1997), but presumably these animals hyperactivity of those from some other recent did breathe somehow! This failure to consider the dinosaur books, and are the feature that most sets 116 Review this book apart from its contemporaries. In my view dinosaurs” does a good job of capturing the the most convincing reconstructions are those of the excitement of these new discoveries and bringing more birdlike forms, and consequently I felt that the these extraordinary animals to life. The evolution of illustrations improved through the species section. birds from dinosaurs was more complex than we Some of the larger species such as tyrannosaurs and could have imagined, and further twists in the story therizinosaurs appear static, unbalanced and too are certain to come! broad across the hips, whereas the reconstructions of smaller forms such as the troodontids and LITERATURE CITED nd dromaeosaurids are dynamic and more satisfying Benton, M.J. 1997. Vertebrate palaeontology. 2 ed. London, Chapman & Hall. as a result. This may be partly a result of the Chang, M.-M.; Chen, P.-j.; Wang, Y.-q.; Wang, Y.2008. The extent to which the dinosaurs can be visualized in Jehol fossils: the emergence of feathered dinosaurs, beaked comparison to living animals, but some of the bizarre birds and flowering plants. Amsterdam, Academic Press, forms such as the oviraptosaurs are also beautifully Elsevier. realised. The page format inevitably means that the Chiappe, L.M. 2007. Glorified dinosaurs. The origin and early evolution of birds. Sydney, UNSW Press. gutter bisects the illustrations; for example, the focal Currie, P.J.; Koppelhus, E.B.; Shugar, M.A.; Wright, point of the illustration of Nemegtomaia is severely J.L. (Eds.) 2004. Feathered dinosaurs: Studies on the disrupted by the gutter and I would have preferred transition from dinosaurs to birds. Bloomington, Indiana the compromise of smaller 1-page illustrations. University Press. Overall, my main criticisms of the book relate to Feduccia, A.; Lingham-Soliar, T.; Hinchliffe, J.R. 2005. Do feathered dinosaurs exist? Testing the hypothesis on its format. I think that the text chapters could have neontological and paleontological evidence. Journal of contained more detail, both in terms of the text and Morphology 266: 125-166 supporting diagrams (e.g. osteological drawings), Feduccia, A.; Martin, L.D.; Tarsitano, S. 2007. Archaeopteryx and more advanced readers may be disappointed. 2007: quo vadis? The Auk 124: 373-380 The inclusion of some photographs of feathered Gauthier, J.; Padian, K. 1985. Phylogenetic, functional, and aerodynamic analyses of the origin of birds and fossils would have been particularly helpful to their flight. Pp. 185-197 in Hecht, M.K.; Ostrom, J.H.; demonstrate the process of reconstruction, and this Vioh, G.; Wellnhofer, P. (eds) The beginnings of birds. could have avoided the duplication of illustrations Eichstatt, Freunde des Jura-Museums. seen here. The species section could have been Padian, K.; Chiappe, L.M. 1998. The origin and early improved by direct referencing to the relevant evolution of birds. Biological Reviews 73: 1-42 Paul, G.S. 2002. Dinosaurs of the air. The evolution and loss of literature for each species, and providing size flight in dinosaurs and birds. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins information in the listing of taxonomic and locality University Press. details. Ruben, J.A.; Jones, T.D.; Geist, N.R.; Hillenius, W.J. 1997. Reports of feathered dinosaurs continue to Lung structure and ventilation in theropod dinosaurs appear on a regular basis. Even some well known and early birds. Science 278: 1267-1270 Turner, A.H.; Makovicky, P.J.; Norell, M.A. 2007. Feather forms, including Velociraptor of Jurassic Park fame, quill knobs in the dinosaur Velociraptor. Science 317: have now been shown to have had feathers (Turner 1721 et al. 2007). Most recently, Zhang et al. (2008) describe Zhang, F.; Zhou, Z.; Xu, X.; Wang, X.; Sullivan, C. 2008. the Middle to Late Jurassic avialan theropod A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran from China with Epidexipteryx, which had 2 pairs of elongate ribbon- elongate ribbon-like feathers. Nature 455: 1105-1108 like feathers on the tail but lacked pennaceous limb feathers. The phylogenetically basal position of KENDALL D. CLEMENTS this form indicates that, unless Epidexipteryx was School of Biological Sciences secondarily flightless, display feathers evolved University of Auckland before flight feathers in theropods. “Feathered AUCKLAND.
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