English: Diagram showing the hands of theropod dinosaurs and their alegged descendants, the birds. Feduccia and other scientists have discovered that bird embryos develop hands with the digits II, III and IV (correspond to the index finger, middle finger and ring finger in humans).^[1][2] This runs contrary to the traditional idea that advanced theropod dinosaurs within Tetanurae (regarded as the ancestors to birds) have the digits I, II and III.

A theory which has been used to explain this is the Frame shift hypothesis.^[3] This hypothesis claim that Tetanurae evolved from an ancestor which had the digits I, II, III and IV. During evolution, digit I was lost (not IV as previously believed). When this happened, the genes coding for how the fingers should look like became refurnished, so the remaining digits II, III and IV came to look like I, II and III. The discovery of the basal ceratosaur Limusaurus are claimed to support the Frame shift hypothesis.^[4]

References

1. ↑ Hinchliffe (1985).
2. ↑ Nowicki J & Feduccia A (2002), "The hand of birds revealed by early ostrich embryos", Naturwissenschaften 89(9): sid. 391-393.
3. ↑ Gauthier J.A & Wagner G (1999), "1, 2, 3 = 2, 3, 4: A solution to the problem of the homology of the digits in the avian hand", PNAS 96(9): sid. 5111-5116.
4. ↑ Erickson et.al (2009), "A Jurassic ceratosaur from China helps clarify avian digital homologies", Nature 459: sid. 940-944.