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Reply to: No protofeathers on pterosaurs

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 4, pages 1592–1593 (2020)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 28 September 2020

replying to D. M. Unwin and D. M. Martill Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01308-9 (2020)

In our paper1, we explored the morphology, ultrastructure and chemistry of the dermal structures of pterosaurs and showed that they probably had a common evolutionary origin with the integumentary structures seen widely in dinosaurs (including birds), their close relatives. Our study of two Middle Jurassic anurognathid pterosaurs from China showed that the whisker-like pycnofibres of the pterosaurs include at least four distinct morphologies, rather than one as had been assumed, and that three of these show branching, a key characteristic of feathers. Further, all four pycnofibre types are morphologically identical to structures already described in birds and non-avialan dinosaurs, not only in terms of gross morphology but also in their ultrastructure and chemistry, including melanosomes and chemical evidence for keratin; collectively, these features are consistent with feathers. Mapping these data onto a phylogeny yields a single evolutionary origin for feathers minimally in the avemetatarsalian ancestor of both pterosaurs and dinosaurs. The net effect of this discovery is to shift the origin of feathers back 100 Myr before Archaeopteryx, one of the first birds.

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Fig. 1: Pycnofibres and comparison with aktinofibrils in the holotype of Jeholopterus ningchengensis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Research and Education on Biological Evolution and Environments, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Zixiao Yang & Baoyu Jiang

  2. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Maria E. McNamara

  3. School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Stuart L. Kearns & Michael J. Benton

  4. Vertebrate Palaeontology Laboratory, Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Michael Pittman

  5. Foundation for Scientific Advancement, Sierra Vista, AZ, USA

    Thomas G. Kaye

  6. UCD School of Earth Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Patrick J. Orr

  7. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xing Xu

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  1. Zixiao Yang
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  4. Stuart L. Kearns
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  8. Xing Xu
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  9. Michael J. Benton
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Contributions

All authors (Z.Y., B.J., M.E.M., S.L.K., T.P., T.G.K., P.J.O., X.X. and M.J.B.) contributed to conceiving and writing this response.

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Correspondence to Baoyu Jiang or Michael J. Benton.

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Yang, Z., Jiang, B., McNamara, M.E. et al. Reply to: No protofeathers on pterosaurs. Nat Ecol Evol 4, 1592–1593 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01309-8

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