Feather Development and Evolution

Feathers are complex, branched skin appendages. Our research on feathers has focused on understanding feather development and the evolution of feather diversity. In 1999, I published a developmental theory of the origin and diversification of feathers that hypothesized a series of stages in feather evolution based on the hierarchical process of feather growth. In subsequent research, we have been testing the predictions of the theory with analyses of the filamentous integumentary structures of non-avian theropod dinosaurs from the Yixian formation of Liaoning, China, and with experimental studies of molecular signaling during feather development.

Other work has focused on investigating additional consequences of how feathers grow, including computer models of the growth of feather shape and the growth of within-feather pigmentation patterning.

Current and future work will focus on experimental developmental studies of branched feather development and within-feather pigmentation patterning, empirical investigations of the growth of feather shape, and the development of structural coloration in feathers (see Physics and Evolution of Structural Color Link).

References

Prum, R. O. 1999. Development and Evolutionary Origin of Feathers. Journal of Experimental Zoology (Molecular and Developmental Evolution) 285: 291-306.

Xu, X., Zhou, Z., and Prum, R. O. 2001. Branched integumental structures in Sinornithosaurus and the origin of feathers. Nature 410: 200-204.

Prum, R. O. and Williamson, S. 2001. A theory of the growth and evolution of feather shape. Journal of Experimental Zoology (Molecular and Developmental Evolution) 291: 30-57.

Prum, R. O. and Williamson, S. 2002. Reaction-diffusion models of within-feather pigmentation patterning. Proceeding of the Royal Society, London: Biological Sciences (B). 269: 781-792.

Prum, R. O. and Brush, A. H. 2002. The evolutionary origin and diversification of feathers. Quarterly Review of Biology. 77: 261-295.

Harris, M. H., Fallon, J. F., and Prum, R. O. 2002. A Shh-Bmp2 Developmental Module and the Evolutionary Origin and Diversification of Feathers. Journal of Experimental Zoology (Molecular and Developmental Evolution). 294: 160-176.

Prum, R. O. and Dyck, J. 2003. A hierarchical model of plumage: modularity, development, and evolution. Journal of Experimental Zoology (Molecular and Developmental Evolution). 298B: 73-90.

Harris, M. H., Williamson, S., Fallon, J. F., Meinhardt, H. and Prum, R. O. 2005. Molecular evidence for activator-inhibitor mechanism in development of embryonic feather branching. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 102: 11734-11739.

Prum, R. O. 2005. Evolution of the morphological Innovations of feathers. Journal of Experimental Zoology (Molecular and Developmental Evolution). 304B: 570-579.

Vinther, J., Briggs, D. E. G., Prum, R. O, Saranathan, V. 2008. The colour of fossil feathers. Biology Letters 4: 522-525. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2008.0302.

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