Article
Evidence for a single loss of mineralized teeth in the common avian ancestor.
Science (New York, N.Y.) - 12 Dec 2014
Meredith Robert W, Zhang Guojie, Gilbert M Thomas P, Jarvis Erich D, Springer Mark S
Abstract excerpt
Edentulism, the absence of teeth, has evolved convergently among vertebrates, including birds, turtles, and several lineages of mammals. Instead of teeth, modern birds (Neornithes) use a horny beak (rhamphotheca) and a muscular gizzard to acquire and process food. We performed comparative genomic analyses representing lineages of nearly all extant bird orders and recovered shared, inactivating mutations within...
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