Chinsamy Anusuya, Buffetaut Eric, Canoville Aurore, Angst Delphine
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rhodes Gift, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa,
Naturwissenschaften. 2014 May;101(5):447-52. doi: 10.1007/s00114-014-1170-6. Epub 2014 Apr 16.
Enigmatic avialan remains of Gargantuavis philoinos from the Ibero-Armorican island of the Late Cretaceous European archipelago (Southern France) led to a debate concerning its taxonomic affinities. Here, we show that the bone microstructure of Gargantuavis resembles that of Apteryx, the extinct emeids and Megalapteryx from New Zealand, and indicates that like these slow-growing terrestrial birds, it took several years to attain skeletal maturity. Our findings suggest that the protracted cyclical growth in these ornithurines may have been in response to insular evolution.
来自晚白垩世欧洲群岛伊比利亚-阿莫里卡岛（法国南部）的神秘巨鸟龙类化石遗迹引发了关于其分类亲缘关系的争论。在此，我们表明巨鸟龙的骨骼微观结构与新西兰已灭绝的几维科鸟类、几维鸟和大恐鸟相似，这表明像这些生长缓慢的陆生鸟类一样，它需要数年时间才能达到骨骼成熟。我们的研究结果表明，这些今鸟型类鸟类长期的周期性生长可能是对岛屿进化的一种响应。
