Koen Stein

TL;DR: Phylogenetic analyses and their Sinemurian age indicate that the thin egg shell of basal sauropodomorphs represents a major evolutionary innovation at the base of Dinosauria and that the much thicker eggshell of sauropods, theropods, and ornithischian dinosaurs evolved independently.

TL;DR: New data is reviewed, from tectonics and regional geology to limb proportions and dinosaur bone histology, which support Nopcsa's original claim of insularity of the Haţeg fauna and confirm that the island rule applies in many, if not all, modern cases, as well as to the Mediterranean island mammals.

TL;DR: The uniquely decreased growth rate and diminutive body size in Magyarosaurus were adaptations to life on a Cretaceous island and show that sauropod dinosaurs were not exempt from general ecological principles limiting body size.

TL;DR: This lineage adds an amphibious ecomorphology to those evolved by maniraptorans: it acquired a predatory mode that relied mainly on neck hyperelongation for food procurement, it coupled the obligatory bipedalism of theropods with forelimb proportions that may support a swimming function, and it developed postural adaptations convergent with short-tailed birds.

TL;DR: Novel findings on sauropod bone histology are presented that cast doubt on general palaeohistological concepts concerning the true nature of woven bone in primary cortical bone and its role in the rapid growth and giant body sizes ofsauropod dinosaurs.