A giant chelonioid turtle from the late Cretaceous of Morocco with a suction feeding apparatus unique among tetrapods

A new small duckbilled dinosaur (Hadrosauridae: Lambeosaurinae) from Morocco and dinosaur diversity in the late Maastrichtian of North Africa

In the Late Cretaceous, northern and southern hemispheres evolved distinct dinosaurian faunas. Titanosaurians and abelisaurids dominated the Gondwanan continents; hadrosaurids, ceratopsians and tyrannosaurs dominated North America and Asia. Recently, a lambeosaurine hadrosaurid, Ajnabia odysseus, was reported from the late Maastrichtian phosphates of the Oulad Abdoun Basin Morocco, suggesting dispersal between Laurasia and Gondwana. Here we report new fossils from the phosphates of Morocco showing lambeosaurines achieved high diversity in the late Maastrichtian of North Africa. A skull represents a new dwarf lambeosaurine, Minqaria bata. Minqaria resembles Ajnabia odysseus in size, but differs in the ventrally positioned jugal facet and sinusoidal toothrow. The animal is small, ~ 3.5 m long, but the fused braincase shows it was mature. A humerus and a femur belong to larger hadrosaurids, ~ 6 m long, implying at least three species coexisted. The diversity of hadrosaurids in Europe and Africa suggests a dispersal-driven radiation, with lambeosaurines diversifying to take advantage of low ornithischian diversity. African lambeosaurines are small compared to North American and Asia hadrosaurids however, perhaps due to competition with titanosaurians. Hadrosaurids are unknown from eastern Africa, suggesting Moroccan hadrosaurids may be part of a distinct insular fauna, and represent an island radiation.

A gigantic bizarre marine turtle (Testudines: Chelonioidea) from the Middle Campanian (Late Cretaceous) of South-western Europe

Marine turtles were common in the subtropical Upper Cretaceous epi-continental seas that once washed the coasts of the ancient European archipelago. But unlike its contemporaneous faunas from North America, in Europe no taxon surpassed the 1.5 m shell-length. Here, the remains of a new large marine turtle, Leviathanochelys aenigmatica gen. et sp. nov., from the Middle Campanian of the Southern Pyrenees are described. Anatomical and histological evidence concur in identifying the specimen as a basal chelonioid. The new taxon autapomorphically differs from other marine turtles by possessing an additional process on the anteromedial side of the pelvis, and an acetabulum directed strongly ventrally. Based on the pelvis size, it is likely that Leviathanochelys was as large as Archelon, thus becoming one of the largest marine turtles found to ever exist. The large body size of the new taxon could have evolved as a response to the unique habitat conditions of the European Cretaceous archipelago seas. The presence of the accessory pubic process further suggests the occurrence of an additional insertion point of the Musculus rectus abdominis, which together with the paleohistologic evidences support the hypothesis that the new taxon had an open marine pelagic lifestyle.

Cranial ecomorphology of turtles and neck retraction as a possible trigger of ecological diversification

Turtles have a highly modified body plan, including a rigid shell that constrains postcranial anatomy. Skull morphology and neck mobility may therefore be key to ecological specialization in turtles. However, the ecological signal of turtle skull morphologies has not been rigorously evaluated, leaving uncertainties about the roles of ecological adaptation and convergence. We evaluate turtle cranial ecomorphology using three-dimensional geometric morphometrics and phylogenetic comparative methods. Skull shape correlates with allometry, neck retraction capability, and different aquatic feeding ecologies. We find that ecological variables influence skull shape only, whereas a key functional variable (the capacity for neck retraction) influences both shape and size. Ecology and functional predictions from three-dimensional shape are validated by high success rates for extant species, outperforming previous two-dimensional approaches. We use this to infer ecological and functional traits of extinct species. Neck retraction evolved among crownward stem-turtles by the Late Jurassic, signaling functional decoupling of the skull and neck from the shell, possibly linked to a major episode of ecomorphological diversification. We also find strong evidence for convergent ecological adaptations among marine groups. This includes parallel loss of neck retraction, evidence for active hunting, possible grazing, and suction feeding in extinct marine groups. Our large-scale assessment of dietary and functional adaptation throughout turtle evolution reveals the timing and origin of their distinct ecomorphologies, and highlights the potential for ecology and function to have distinct effects on skull form.

Redescription of the skull of the Australian flatback sea turtle, Natator depressus, provides new morphological evidence for phylogenetic relationships among sea turtles (Chelonioidea)

Chelonioidea (sea turtles) are a group where available morphological evidence for crown-group relationships are incongruent with those established using molecular data. However, morphological surveys of crown-group taxa tend to focus on a recurring subset of the extant species. The Australian flatback sea turtle, Natator depressus, is often excluded from comparisons and it is the most poorly known of the seven extant species of Chelonioidea. Previous descriptions of its skull morphology are limited and conflict. Here we describe three skulls of adult N. depressus and re-examine the phylogenetic relationships according to morphological character data. Using X-ray micro Computed Tomography we describe internal structures of the braincase and identify new phylogenetically informative characters not previously reported. Phylogenetic analysis using a Bayesian approach strongly supports a sister-group relationship between Chelonia mydas and N. depressus, a topology that was not supported by previous analyses of morphological data but one that matches the topology supported by analysis of molecular data. Our results highlight the general need to sample the morphological anatomy of crown-group taxa more thoroughly before concluding that morphological and molecular evidence are incongruous.

Suction Feeding by Small Organisms: Performance Limits in Larval Vertebrates and Carnivorous Plants

Suction feeding has evolved independently in two highly disparate animal and plant systems, aquatic vertebrates and carnivorous bladderworts. We review the suction performance of animal and plant suction feeders to explore biomechanical performance limits for aquatic feeders based on morphology and kinematics, in the context of current knowledge of suction feeding. While vertebrates have the greatest diversity and size range of suction feeders, bladderworts are the smallest and fastest known suction feeders. Body size has profound effects on aquatic organismal function, including suction feeding, particularly in the intermediate flow regime that tiny organisms can experience. A minority of tiny organisms suction feed, consistent with model predictions that generating effective suction flow is less energetically efficient and also requires more flow-rate specific power at small size. Although the speed of suction flows generally increases with body and gape size, some specialized tiny plant and animal predators generate suction flows greater than those of suction feeders 100 times larger. Bladderworts generate rapid flow via high-energy and high-power elastic recoil and suction feed for nutrients (relying on photosynthesis for energy). Small animals may be limited by available muscle energy and power, although mouth protrusion can offset the performance cost of not generating high suction pressure. We hypothesize that both the high energetic costs and high power requirements of generating rapid suction flow shape the biomechanics of small suction feeders, and that plants and animals have arrived at different solutions due in part to their different energy budgets.

Asmodochelys parhami, a new fossil marine turtle from the Campanian Demopolis Chalk and the stratigraphic congruence of competing marine turtle phylogenies

Resolving the phylogeny of sea turtles is uniquely challenging given the high potential for the unification of convergent lineages due to systematic homoplasy. Equivocal reconstructions of marine turtle evolution subsequently inhibit efforts to establish fossil calibrations for molecular divergence estimates and prevent the accurate reconciliation of biogeographic or palaeoclimatic data with phylogenetic hypotheses. Here we describe a new genus and species of marine turtle, Asmodochelys parhami, from the Upper Campanian Demopolis Chalk of Alabama and Mississippi, USA represented by three partial shells. Phylogenetic analysis shows that A. parhami belongs to the ctenochelyids, an extinct group that shares characteristics with both pan-chelonioids and pan-cheloniids. In addition to supporting Ctenochelyidae as a sister taxon of Chelonioidea, our analysis places Protostegidae outside of the Chelonioidea crown group and recovers Allopleuron hofmanni as a stem dermochelyid. Gap excess ratio (GER) results indicate a strong stratigraphic congruence of our phylogenetic hypothesis; however, the highest GER value is associated with the phylogenetic hypothesis of marine turtles which excludes Protostegidae from the Cryptodira crown group. Ancestral range estimations derived from our phylogeny imply a European or North American origin of Chelonioidea in the middle-to-late Campanian, approximately 20 Myr earlier than current molecular divergence studies suggest.

Comparative analysis of the shape and size of the middle ear cavity of turtles reveals no correlation with habitat ecology

The middle ear of turtles differs from other reptiles in being separated into two distinct compartments. Several ideas have been proposed as to why the middle ear is compartmentalized in turtles, most suggesting a relationship with underwater hearing. Extant turtle species span fully marine to strictly terrestrial habitats, and ecomorphological hypotheses of turtle hearing predict that this should correlate with variation in the structure of the middle ear due to differences in the fluid properties of water and air. We investigate the shape and size of the air-filled middle ear cavity of 56 extant turtles using 3D data and phylogenetic comparative analysis to test for correlations between habitat preferences and the shape and size of the middle ear cavity. Only weak correlations are found between middle ear cavity size and ecology, with aquatic taxa having proportionally smaller cavity volumes. The middle ear cavity of turtles exhibits high shape diversity among species, but we found no relationship between this shape variation and ecology. Surprisingly, the estimated acoustic transformer ratio, a key functional parameter of impedance-matching ears in vertebrates, also shows no relation to habitat preferences (aquatic/terrestrial) in turtles. We suggest that middle ear cavity shape may be controlled by factors unrelated to hearing, such as the spatial demands of surrounding cranial structures. A review of the fossil record suggests that the modern turtle ear evolved during the Early to Middle Jurassic in stem turtles broadly adapted to freshwater and terrestrial settings. This, combined with our finding that evolutionary transitions between habitats caused only weak evolutionary changes in middle ear structure, suggests that tympanic hearing in turtles evolved as a compromise between subaerial and underwater hearing.

Anatomy of Rhinochelys pulchriceps (Protostegidae) and marine adaptation during the early evolution of chelonioids

Knowledge of the early evolution of sea turtles (Chelonioidea) has been limited by conflicting phylogenetic hypotheses resulting from sparse taxon sampling and a superficial understanding of the morphology of key taxa. This limits our understanding of evolutionary adaptation to marine life in turtles, and in amniotes more broadly. One problematic group are the protostegids, Early-Late Cretaceous marine turtles that have been hypothesised to be either stem-cryptodires, stem-chelonioids, or crown-chelonioids. Different phylogenetic hypotheses for protostegids suggest different answers to key questions, including (1) the number of transitions to marine life in turtles, (2) the age of the chelonioid crown-group, and (3) patterns of skeletal evolution during marine adaptation. We present a detailed anatomical study of one of the earliest protostegids, Rhinochelys pulchriceps from the early Late Cretaceous of Europe, using high-resolution μCT. We synonymise all previously named European species and document the variation seen among them. A phylogeny of turtles with increased chelonioid taxon sampling and revised postcranial characters is provided, recovering protostegids as stem-chelonioids. Our results imply a mid Early Cretaceous origin of total-group chelonioids and an early Late Cretaceous age for crown-chelonioids, which may inform molecular clock analyses in future. Specialisations of the chelonioid flipper evolved in a stepwise-fashion, with innovations clustered into pulses at the origin of total-group chelonioids, and subsequently among dermochelyids, crown-cheloniids, and gigantic protostegids from the Late Cretaceous.

Comparative cranial morphology of the Late Cretaceous protostegid sea turtle Desmatochelys lowii

BACKGROUND

The phylogenetic placement of Cretaceous marine turtles, especially Protostegidae, is still under debate among paleontologists. Whereas protostegids were traditionally thought to be situated within the clade of recent marine turtles (Chelonioidea), some recent morphological and molecular studies suggest placement along the stem of Cryptodira. The main reason why the evolution of marine turtles is still poorly understood, is in part due to a lack of insights into the cranial anatomy of protostegids. However, a general availability of high-quality fossil material, combined with modern analysis techniques, such as X-ray microtomography, provide ample opportunity to improve this situation. The scope of this study is to help resolve its phylogenetic relationships by providing a detailed description of the external and internal cranial morphology of the extinct protostegid sea turtle Desmatochelys lowii Williston, 1894.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This study is based on the well-preserved holotype of Desmatochelys lowii from the Late Cretaceous (middle Cenomanian to early Turonian) Greenhorn Limestone of Jefferson County, Nebraska. The skulls of two recent marine turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata (Linnaeus, 1766) (Cheloniidae) and Dermochelys coriacea Lydekker, 1889 (Dermochelyidae), as well as the snapping turtle Chelydra serpentina (Linnaeus, 1758) (Chelydridae) provide a comparative basis. All skulls were scanned using regular or micro CT scanners and the scans were then processed with the software program Amira to create 3D isosurface models. In total, 81 bones are virtually isolated, figured, and described, including the nature of their contacts. The novel bone contact data is compiled and utilized in a preliminary phenetic study. In addition, an update phylogenetic analysis is conduced that utilizes newly obtained anatomical insights.

RESULTS

The detailed examination of the morphology of the herein used specimens allowed to explore some features of the skull, to refine the scoring of Desmatochelys lowii in the recent global matrix of turtles, and develop five new characters. The alleged pineal foramen in the type skull of Desmatochelys lowii is shown to be the result of damage. Instead, it appears that the pineal gland only approached the skull surface, as it is in Dermochelys coriacea. Whereas the parasphenoid in confirmed to be absent in hard-shelled sea turtles, ist possible presence in Desmatochelys lowii is unclear. The results of the phenetic study show that Desmatochelys lowii is least similar to the other examined taxa in regards to the nature of its bone contacts, and therefore suggests a placement outside Americhelydia for this protostegid sea turtle. The phylogenetic study results in a placement of Protostegidae along the stem of Chelonioidea, which is a novel position for the group.

Rhinochelys amaberti Moret (1935), a protostegid turtle from the Early Cretaceous of France

Modern marine turtles (chelonioids) are the remnants of an ancient radiation that roots in the Cretaceous. The oldest members of that radiation are first recorded from the Early Cretaceous and a series of species are known from the Albian-Cenomanian interval, many of which have been allocated to the widespread but poorly defined genus Rhinochelys, possibly concealing the diversity and the evolution of early marine turtles. In order to better understand the radiation of chelonioids, we redescribe the holotype and assess the taxonomy of Rhinochelys amaberti Moret (1935) (UJF-ID.11167) from the Late Albian (Stoliczkaia dispar Zone) of the Vallon de la Fauge (Isère, France). We also make preliminary assessments of the phylogenetic relationships of Chelonioidea using two updated datasets that widely sample Cretaceous taxa, especially Rhinochelys. Rhinochelys amaberti is a valid taxon that is supported by eight autapomorphies; an emended diagnosisis proposed. Our phylogenetic analyses suggest that Rhinochelys could be polyphyletic, but constraining it as a monophyletic entity does not produce trees that are significantly less parsimonious. Moreover, support values and stratigraphic congruence indexes are fairly low for the recovered typologies, suggesting that missing data still strongly affect our understanding of the Cretaceous diversification of sea turtles.

Still slow, but even steadier: an update on the evolution of turtle cranial disparity interpolating shapes along branches

In a previous study, we estimated the cranial disparity of turtles (Testudinata) through time using geometric morphometric data from both terminal taxa and hypothetical ancestors to compensate for temporal gaps in the fossil record. While this method yielded reasonable results for the Mesozoic and the early Cenozoic, we found a large drop in cranial disparity for the Miocene, for which we found no correlation with known environmental changes or extinction events. Instead, we speculated that the Miocene dip was a result of poor sampling of fossils or ancestors in this time bin. To countervail this problem, we here updated our original dataset and interpolated changes of shape along the branch lengths and compared them with the previous data. We furthermore explored the impact of topological and temporal uncertainty, demonstrating that the Miocene dip, indeed, is a sampling artefact. All remaining conclusions of the previous study could be more or less supported, nevertheless, including an apparent correlation with global biogeographic events, a minor correlation between cranial disparity and global temperature, and resilience across the K/T extinction event.

Biochemistry and adaptive colouration of an exceptionally preserved juvenile fossil sea turtle

The holotype (MHM-K2) of the Eocene cheloniine Tasbacka danica is arguably one of the best preserved juvenile fossil sea turtles on record. Notwithstanding compactional flattening, the specimen is virtually intact, comprising a fully articulated skeleton exposed in dorsal view. MHM-K2 also preserves, with great fidelity, soft tissue traces visible as a sharply delineated carbon film around the bones and marginal scutes along the edge of the carapace. Here we show that the extraordinary preservation of the type of T. danica goes beyond gross morphology to include ultrastructural details and labile molecular components of the once-living animal. Haemoglobin-derived compounds, eumelanic pigments and proteinaceous materials retaining the immunological characteristics of sauropsid-specific β-keratin and tropomyosin were detected in tissues containing remnant melanosomes and decayed keratin plates. The preserved organics represent condensed remains of the cornified epidermis and, likely also, deeper anatomical features, and provide direct chemical evidence that adaptive melanism – a biological means used by extant sea turtle hatchlings to elevate metabolic and growth rates – had evolved 54 million years ago.