Variability of bone microstructure and growth lines in the evolution of troodontids and dromaeosaurids

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 1990s, palaeontologists have been interested in understanding biological processes recorded within the bone microstructure of deinonychosaurian theropods, the group comprising Troodontidae and Dromaeosauridae. Several studies were published on this subject, and the growing database requires the first revision of used terminology and older interpretations. Furthermore, a platform correlating the developmental characters of all investigated taxa is missing. Hence, we lack a perspective to evaluate the potential of deinonychosaurian osteohistology for understanding their evolution and that of their close relatives, including avialans. This study aimed to fill in this gap by offering a comprehensive review of the previous osteohistological investigations published on deinonychosaurians and Archaeopteryx. Four significant evolutionary phenomena are assumed from the investigated deinonychosaurian taxa: (1) it is likely that troodontids evolved general osteohistology closer to basal avialans than to dromaeosaurids, (2) in troodontids, reticular vasculature is correlated to maturation timing, (3) the first growth deceleration occurs later in smaller deinonychosaurs (e.g. Changyuraptor, Sinornithosaurus) than in larger forms (e.g. Buitreraptor), and (4) the growth rate of the deinonychosaurs' hind limbs might be correlated with a specific type of locomotion.