Institutional development · Research, innovation and assessment · Brazil
Wishbone study in birds and reptiles offers clues to how dinosaur skeletons evolved
A study reported by the University of São Paulo suggests the bird wishbone forms when the collarbones join with the interclavicle, a hypothesis said to help explain dinosaur skeletal evolution.
Why it matters: Researchers studying how dinosaur skeletons evolved have an embryology-based hypothesis on the wishbone's origin to consider.
The University of São Paulo's news site reported a study on the origin of the furcula, the so-called 'wishbone', in birds and reptiles.
According to the report, the embryonic development of present-day birds and reptiles suggests that the furcula results from the union of the clavicles with the interclavicle.
The university said this hypothesis helps in understanding how the skeleton of dinosaurs evolved.
Editor’s view
Scott James, Research and Innovation Editor
For researchers working on dinosaur and bird skeletal evolution, the study offers a hypothesis grounded in the embryonic development of living birds and reptiles: if it holds, the wishbone would be understood as the product of the clavicles joining the interclavicle.
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