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2011
Journal article
Halcyornis toliapicus (aves: Lower Eocene, England) indicates advanced neuromorphology in Mesozoic Neornithes
Our recent X-ray micro computer-tomographic (μCT) investigations of Prophaethon shrubsolei and Odontopteryx toliapica from the Lower Eocene London Clay Formation of England revealed the avian brain to have been essentially modern in form by 55 Ma, but that an important vision-related synapomorphy of living birds, the eminentia sagittalis of the...Walsh, Stig A ; Milner, Angela C
Eocene, eminentia sagittalis, London clay, Halcyornis toliapicus, endocranial cast, and brain evolution
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2013
Journal article
Avian cerebellar floccular fossa size is not a proxy for flying ability in birds
Extinct animal behavior has often been inferred from qualitative assessments of relative brain region size in fossil endocranial casts. For instance, flight capability in pterosaurs and early birds has been inferred from the relative size of the cerebellar flocculus, which in life protrudes from the lateral surface of the cerebellum....Walsh, Stig A ; Iwaniuk, Andrew N ; Knoll, Monja A ; Bourdon, Estelle ; Barrett, Paul M …
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2017
Journal article
Floccular fossa size is not a reliable proxy of ecology and behaviour in vertebrates
The cerebellar floccular and parafloccular lobes are housed in fossae of the periotic region of the skull of different vertebrates. Experimental evidence indicates that the lobes integrate visual and vestibular information and control the vestibulo-ocular reflex, vestibulo-collic reflex, smooth pursuit and gaze holding. Multiple paleoneuroanatomy studies have deduced the behaviour...Ferreira-Cardoso, S ; Araújo, R ; Martins, N E ; Martins, G G ; Walsh, Stig A …
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2017
Journal article
Open data and digital morphology
Over the past two decades, the development of methods for visualizing and analysing specimens digitally, in three and even four dimensions, has transformed the study of living and fossil organisms. However, the initial promise that the widespread application of such methods would facilitate access to the underlying digital data has... -
2017
Journal article
A new Mississippian tetrapod from Fife, Scotland, and its environmental context
The Visean stage of the Mississippian was a time of rapid tetrapod diversification which marks the earliest appearance of temnospondyls, microsaurs and the limbless aïstopods. Tetrapod finds from this stage are very rare and only a dozen sites are known worldwide. Here we announce the discovery of a new Visean...Smithson, Timothy R ; Browne, Michael A E ; Davies, Sarah J ; Marshall, John E A ; Millward, David …
Mississippian, tetrapod, Spathi- cephalidae., Visean, and Asbian