The articles are in English, but the August issues' TOC & abstracts are already on line, and nothing by Feduccia is to be seen. Curious.

© Springer-Verlag 2002

Short Communication

The hand of birds revealed by early ostrich embryos

Alan Feduccia^1, and Julie Nowicki¹

(1)

Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3280, USA

Abstract. The problem of resolving the homology of the digits of the avian hand has been framed as a conflict between paleontological and embryological evidence, the former thought to support a hand composed of digits I, II, III, because of similarity of the phalangeal formulae of the earliest known bird Archaeopteryx to that of Mesozoic pentadactyl archosaurs, while embryological evidence has traditionally favored a II, III, IV avian hand. We have identified the critical developmental period for the major features of the avian skeleton in a primitive bird, the ostrich. Analysis of digit anlagen in the avian hand has revealed those for digits/metacarpals I and V, thus confirming previous embryological studies that indirectly suggested that the avian hand comprises digits II, III, IV, and was primitively pentadactyl.

E-mail: Feduccia@bio.unc.edu
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