龙的黑色素体支持早期羽毛的信号功能
Aude Cincotta1,2,3,4, Michaël Nicolaï5, Hebert Bruno Nascimento Campos6
1Directorate Earth and History of Life, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium. acincotta@naturalsciences.be.
Nature
|April 21, 2022
概括
在巴西带状类恐龙的皮肤和羽毛中发现的多种黑色素体形状表明,早期羽毛的进化包括了除了温度调节之外的功能. 这表明古代遗传控制了羽毛的颜色和视觉信号.
科学领域:
- 古生物学
- 进化生物学
- 中生代软组织研究
背景情况:
- 在中生代化石中保存完好的软组织提供了关于羽毛演变的见解.
- 之前的证据表明类动物有分支的羽毛,暗示着早期的羽毛起源,但它们的同质性仍有争议.
- 据报道的类动物羽毛中的均黑色素体形状表明颜色变化有限和主要的温度调节功能.
研究的目的:
- 为了研究皮肤和羽毛中的黑色素体几何结构的多样性.
- 为了确定类恐龙的羽毛是否表现出不同的黑色素体种群,
- 探索羽毛颜色操纵的进化起源及其在视觉交流中的潜在功能.
主要方法:
- 来自巴西白纪早期的类类化石的软组织分析.
- 在不同类型的羽毛 (简单和分支) 和皮肤中的黑色素体几何体的显微镜检查.
- 黑色素体多样性的比较与热足恐龙和鸟类的已知模式.
主要成果:
- 在皮肤中发现了多样化的黑色素体几何体,简单的羽毛和分支的羽毛.
- 在不同羽毛类型和皮肤中识别出不同的黑色素体群.
- 这种黑色素体多样性模式与包括鸟类在内的类恐龙相似.
结论:
- 在类动物中,特定于组织的黑色素体几何体表明,用于视觉通信等功能的羽毛颜色操纵具有古老的进化根源.
- 这些发现表明,黑色素体化学和形状的遗传调节在羽毛进化早期是活跃的.
- 这挑战了早期羽毛仅仅用于温度调节的观点,
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