Palaeo News: The making of a Wishbone

A crucial part of a bird’s flying apparatus is the furcular, or wishbone, which helps to provide some spring-effect to the down-stroke of a birds wing. The question had long been how and when did the furcular evolve?

It wasn’t until John Ostrom in the mid 1960’s that it was realised that the wishbone is made up of a couple of collar bones (clavicles) fused together and that this had happened way back among the theropod ancestors of the birds.

News in the most recent edition of Nature of an anatomical study of the furcula in the birdlike theropod Halszkaraptor escuilliei. The researchers conclude that the function of the forelimbs in theropod ancestors shifted from being walking on for legs to a new function of specialized grasping. Part of this change in function included a tighter connection between the scapulocoracoids and the interclavicle, two other bones in the shoulder girdle.

Read the original research here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-94285-3