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Notably, rotation of the occiput toward a ventral orientation is associated with important changes to SCC shape that match those observed during the dinosaur\u2013bird transition. This suggests that evolutionary transformations of SCC shape during the Mesozoic origin of avian flight resulted from evolutionary changes in the orientation of the craniocervical joint, and not from tuning of SCC sensory function. These findings illuminate the importance of integrated morphological changes to the head-neck system during bird origins and challenge the long-standing assumption that SCC morphology enables confident inferences of the locomotor capabilities of extinct vertebrates.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2612503123","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,12]],"date-time":"2026-10-12T19:03:09Z","timestamp":1791831789000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Coordinated transformations of the labyrinth and occiput during the dinosaur\u2013bird transition"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"123","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2447-1275","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Guillermo","family":"Naval\u00f3n","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04pmn0e78","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Department of Life Sciences, Global Change 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