Fully fledged enantiornithine hatchling revealed by Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence supports precocial nesting behavior

Thomas G Kaye,Hugo Martín-Abad,Angela D Buscalioni,Jesús Marugán-Lobón,José Luis Sanz,Michael Pittman

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-41423-7

Thomas G Kaye, Hugo Martín-Abad + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-41423-7

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Abstract

Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence (LSF) is used to identify fully fledged feathering in the hatchling enantiornithine bird specimen MPCM-LH-26189, supporting precocial nesting behavior in this extinct group. The LSF results include the detection of a long pennaceous wing feather as well as cover feathers around the body. The LSF technique showed improved detection limits over and above synchrotron and UV imaging which had both been performed on this specimen. The findings underscore the value of using a wide range of analytical techniques.

Highlights

The enantiornithine hatchling MPCM-LH-26189 from the Las Hoyas locality of Spain helped to identify an asynchronous clade-wide pattern of sternal and vertebral osteogenesis in early juvenile enantiornithines, supporting variation in their size and their tempo of skeletal maturation[1]
It is noteworthy that the long wing feather of MPCM-LH-26189 is extremely similar to the Chinese enantiornithine embryo specimen that was first used to propose precociality in this group[9]
According to the Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence (LSF) results, there are two types of feathers in MPCM-LH-26189, raising the question of whether this confirms both remigial and cover feathers. Such an assertion is important because cover feathers have never been documented in enantiornithines

Summary

Introduction

The enantiornithine hatchling MPCM-LH-26189 from the Las Hoyas locality of Spain helped to identify an asynchronous clade-wide pattern of sternal and vertebral osteogenesis in early juvenile enantiornithines, supporting variation in their size and their tempo of skeletal maturation[1] This previous study found no feathers or chemical evidence for plumage (see Fig. 5 caption of1) with faint ribbing visible in a yellowish stain suggested to be more consistent with the morphology of vegetal material than with feathers (see Supplementary Note 1 of[1]). LSF does not identify specific elemental signatures, but it does differentially fluoresce extremely small differences in mineral lattice contamination detectable as color differences It has been successfully employed in the study of other Las Hoyas fossils[6]. Further details of the technique are provided in the Methods section

Methods

Results

Conclusion