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Holwerda FM, Bestwick J, Purnell MA, Jagt JWM, Schulp AS. Three-dimensional dental microwear in type-Maastrichtian mosasaur teeth (Reptilia, Squamata). Sci Rep 2023; 13:18720. [PMID: 37945619 PMCID: PMC10636054 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-42369-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2022] [Accepted: 09/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Mosasaurs (Squamata, Mosasauridae) were large aquatic reptiles from the Late Cretaceous that filled a range of ecological niches within marine ecosystems. The type-Maastrichtian strata (68-66 Ma) of the Netherlands and Belgium preserve remains of five species that seemed to have performed different ecological roles (carnivores, piscivores, durophages). However, many interpretations of mosasaur diet and niche partitioning are based on qualitative types of evidence that are difficult to test explicitly. Here, we apply three-dimensional dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) to provide quantitative dietary constraints for type-Maastrichtian mosasaurs, and to assess levels of niche partitioning between taxa. DMTA indicates that these mosasaurs did not exhibit neatly defined diets or strict dietary partitioning. Instead, we identify three broad groups: (i) mosasaurs Carinodens belgicus and Plioplatecarpus marshi plotting in the space of modern reptiles that are predominantly piscivorous and/or consume harder invertebrate prey, (ii) Prognathodon saturator and Prognathodon sectorius overlapping with extant reptiles that consume larger amounts of softer invertebrate prey items, and (iii) Mosasaurus hoffmanni spanning a larger plot area in terms of dietary constraints. The clear divide between the aforementioned first two groups in texture-dietary space indicates that, despite our small sample sizes, this method shows the potential of DMTA to test hypotheses and provide quantitative constraints on mosasaur diets and ecological roles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Femke M Holwerda
- Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, P.O. Box 7500, Drumheller, AB, T0J 0Y0, Canada.
- Department of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8a, 3584 CB, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | - Jordan Bestwick
- School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Centre for Palaeobiology Research, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
- School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
| | - Mark A Purnell
- School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Centre for Palaeobiology Research, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
| | - John W M Jagt
- Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht, De Bosquetplein 6-7, 6211 KJ, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Anne S Schulp
- Department of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8a, 3584 CB, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht, De Bosquetplein 6-7, 6211 KJ, Maastricht, The Netherlands
- Naturalis Biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands
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2
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Simões TR, Vernygora OV, de Medeiros BAS, Wright AM. Handling Logical Character Dependency in Phylogenetic Inference: Extensive Performance Testing of Assumptions and Solutions Using Simulated and Empirical Data. Syst Biol 2023; 72:662-680. [PMID: 36773019 PMCID: PMC10276625 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syad006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2022] [Revised: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 02/09/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Logical character dependency is a major conceptual and methodological problem in phylogenetic inference of morphological data sets, as it violates the assumption of character independence that is common to all phylogenetic methods. It is more frequently observed in higher-level phylogenies or in data sets characterizing major evolutionary transitions, as these represent parts of the tree of life where (primary) anatomical characters either originate or disappear entirely. As a result, secondary traits related to these primary characters become "inapplicable" across all sampled taxa in which that character is absent. Various solutions have been explored over the last three decades to handle character dependency, such as alternative character coding schemes and, more recently, new algorithmic implementations. However, the accuracy of the proposed solutions, or the impact of character dependency across distinct optimality criteria, has never been directly tested using standard performance measures. Here, we utilize simple and complex simulated morphological data sets analyzed under different maximum parsimony optimization procedures and Bayesian inference to test the accuracy of various coding and algorithmic solutions to character dependency. This is complemented by empirical analyses using a recoded data set on palaeognathid birds. We find that in small, simulated data sets, absent coding performs better than other popular coding strategies available (contingent and multistate), whereas in more complex simulations (larger data sets controlled for different tree structure and character distribution models) contingent coding is favored more frequently. Under contingent coding, a recently proposed weighting algorithm produces the most accurate results for maximum parsimony. However, Bayesian inference outperforms all parsimony-based solutions to handle character dependency due to fundamental differences in their optimization procedures-a simple alternative that has been long overlooked. Yet, we show that the more primary characters bearing secondary (dependent) traits there are in a data set, the harder it is to estimate the true phylogenetic tree, regardless of the optimality criterion, owing to a considerable expansion of the tree parameter space. [Bayesian inference, character dependency, character coding, distance metrics, morphological phylogenetics, maximum parsimony, performance, phylogenetic accuracy.].
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Affiliation(s)
- Tiago R Simões
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Oksana V Vernygora
- Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
| | | | - April M Wright
- Department of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, Louisiana, USA
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3
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Skawiński T. Rediscovery and redescription of the only known mosasaur bone from the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) of Poland. PeerJ 2022; 10:e14278. [PMID: 36320565 PMCID: PMC9618259 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.14278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2022] [Accepted: 09/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Mosasaur remains from Poland are very rare and are restricted mostly to the Campanian and Maastrichtian. The only currently known pre-Campanian records come from the Turonian strata in the Opole area, southwestern Poland. One of them is a single tooth which probably belongs to a yaguarasaurine while the other is an incomplete vertebra, for many years considered lost. The latter specimen has recently been found and is redescribed in this article. Its most characteristic feature is a strong dorsoventral compression of the articular surfaces. This is similar to the condition observed in basal mosasauroids such as halisaurines and tethysaurines. Unfortunately, due to its incompleteness, the rediscovered specimen cannot be confidently referred to any of these clades and can only be described as a probable non-mosasaurine, non-plioplatecarpine, non-tylosaurine mosasauroid. Despite its uncertain phylogenetic position, it is important from a historical point of view and as only the second record (and the only bone record) of mosasauroids from the Turonian of Poland.
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4
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MacLaren JA, Bennion RF, Bardet N, Fischer V. Global ecomorphological restructuring of dominant marine reptiles prior to the Cretaceous-Palaeogene mass extinction. Proc Biol Sci 2022; 289:20220585. [PMID: 35611532 PMCID: PMC9130788 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0585] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Mosasaurid squamates were the dominant amniote predators in marine ecosystems during most of the Late Cretaceous. Here, we use a suite of biomechanically rooted, functionally descriptive ratios in a framework adapted from population ecology to investigate how the morphofunctional disparity of mosasaurids evolved prior to the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K/Pg) mass extinction. Our results suggest that taxonomic turnover in mosasaurid community composition from Campanian to Maastrichtian is reflected by a notable global increase in morphofunctional disparity, especially driving the North American record. Ecomorphospace occupation becomes polarized during the Late Maastrichtian, with morphofunctional disparity plateauing in the Southern Hemisphere and decreasing in the Northern Hemisphere. We show that these changes are not strongly associated with mosasaurid size, but rather with the functional capacities of their skulls. Our novel approach indicates that mosasaurid morphofunctional disparity was in decline in multiple provincial communities before the K/Pg mass extinction, highlighting region-specific patterns of disparity evolution and the importance of assessing vertebrate extinctions both globally and locally. Ecomorphological differentiation in mosasaurid communities, coupled with declines in other formerly abundant marine reptile groups, indicates widespread restructuring of higher trophic levels in marine food webs was well underway when the K/Pg mass extinction took place.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jamie A. MacLaren
- Evolution and Diversity Dynamics Lab, UR Geology, Université de Liège, 14 Allée du 6 Août, Liège 4000, Belgium,Functional Morphology Lab, Department of Biology, Universiteit Antwerpen, Gebouw D, Campus Drie Eiken, Universiteitsplein 1, Wilrijk, Antwerpen 2610, Belgium
| | - Rebecca F. Bennion
- Evolution and Diversity Dynamics Lab, UR Geology, Université de Liège, 14 Allée du 6 Août, Liège 4000, Belgium,O.D Terre et Histoire de la Vie, Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Rue Vautier 29, Brussels 1000, Belgium
| | - Nathalie Bardet
- CR2P – Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie de Paris, UMR 7207 CNRS-MNHN-SU, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 57 Rue Cuvier, CP38, Paris 75005, France
| | - Valentin Fischer
- Evolution and Diversity Dynamics Lab, UR Geology, Université de Liège, 14 Allée du 6 Août, Liège 4000, Belgium
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5
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Dong L, Wang YQ, Zhao Q, Vasilyan D, Wang Y, Evans SE. A new stem-varanid lizard (Reptilia, Squamata) from the early Eocene of China. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210041. [PMID: 35125002 PMCID: PMC8819366 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Monitor lizards (genus Varanus) are today distributed across Asia, Africa and Australasia and represent one of the most recognizable and successful lizard lineages. They include charismatic living species like the Komodo dragon of Indonesia and the even larger extinct Varanus prisca (Megalania) of Australia. The fossil record suggests that living varanids had their origins in a diverse assemblage of stem (varaniform) species known from the Late Cretaceous of China and Mongolia. However, determining the biogeographic origins of crown-varanids has proved problematic, with Asia, Africa and Australia each being proposed. The problem is complicated by the fragmentary nature of many attributed specimens, and the fact that the most widely accepted, and most complete, fossil of a stem-varanid, that of Saniwa ensidens, is from North America. In this paper, we describe a well-preserved skull and skeleton of a new genus of stem-varanid from the Eocene of China. Phylogenetic analysis places the new genus as the sister taxon of Varanus, suggesting that the transition from Cretaceous varaniform lizards to Varanus occurred in East Asia before the origin and dispersal of Varanus to other regions. The discovery of the new specimen thus fills an important gap in the fossil record of monitor lizards. The similar lengths of the fore- and hindlimbs in this new taxon are unusual among the total group Varanidae and suggest it may have had a different lifestyle, at least from the contemporaneous North American S. ensidens. This article is part of the theme issue 'The impact of Chinese palaeontology on evolutionary research'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liping Dong
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Yuan-Qing Wang
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Qi Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Davit Vasilyan
- JURASSICA Museum, Porrentruy, Switzerland.,Department of the Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Yuan Wang
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Susan E Evans
- Centre for Integrative Anatomy, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, London, UK
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6
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Gutarra S, Rahman IA. The locomotion of extinct secondarily aquatic tetrapods. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2021; 97:67-98. [PMID: 34486794 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12790] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2021] [Revised: 08/14/2021] [Accepted: 08/18/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
The colonisation of freshwater and marine ecosystems by land vertebrates has repeatedly occurred in amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals over the course of 300 million years. Functional interpretations of the fossil record are crucial to understanding the forces shaping these evolutionary transitions. Secondarily aquatic tetrapods have acquired a suite of anatomical, physiological and behavioural adaptations to locomotion in water. However, much of this information is lost for extinct clades, with fossil evidence often restricted to osteological data and a few extraordinary specimens with soft tissue preservation. Traditionally, functional morphology in fossil secondarily aquatic tetrapods was investigated through comparative anatomy and correlation with living functional analogues. However, in the last two decades, biomechanics in palaeobiology has experienced a remarkable methodological shift. Anatomy-based approaches are increasingly rigorous, informed by quantitative techniques for analysing shape. Moreover, the incorporation of physics-based methods has enabled objective tests of functional hypotheses, revealing the importance of hydrodynamic forces as drivers of evolutionary innovation and adaptation. Here, we present an overview of the latest research on the locomotion of extinct secondarily aquatic tetrapods, with a focus on amniotes, highlighting the state-of-the-art experimental approaches used in this field. We discuss the suitability of these techniques for exploring different aspects of locomotory adaptation, analysing their advantages and limitations and laying out recommendations for their application, with the aim to inform future experimental strategies. Furthermore, we outline some unexplored research avenues that have been successfully deployed in other areas of palaeobiomechanical research, such as the use of dynamic models in feeding mechanics and terrestrial locomotion, thus providing a new methodological synthesis for the field of locomotory biomechanics in extinct secondarily aquatic vertebrates. Advances in imaging technology and three-dimensional modelling software, new developments in robotics, and increased availability and awareness of numerical methods like computational fluid dynamics make this an exciting time for analysing form and function in ancient vertebrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susana Gutarra
- School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, U.K.,Department of Earth Sciences, the Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, U.K
| | - Imran A Rahman
- Department of Earth Sciences, the Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, U.K.,Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW, U.K
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7
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Abstract
Mosasaurs were large, globally distributed aquatic lizards that lived during the Late Cretaceous. Despite numerous specimens of varying maturity, a detailed growth series has not been proposed for any mosasaur taxon. Two taxa-Tylosaurus proriger and T. kansasensis/nepaeolicus-have robust fossil records with specimens spanning a wide range of sizes and are thus ideal for studying mosasaur ontogeny. Tylosaurus is a genus of particularly large mosasaurs with long, edentulous anterior extensions of the premaxilla and dentary that lived in Europe and North America during the Late Cretaceous. An analysis of growth in Tylosaurus provides an opportunity to test hypotheses of the synonymy of T. kansasensis with T. nepaeolicus, sexual dimorphism, anagenesis, and heterochrony. Fifty-nine hypothetical growth characters were identified, including size-dependent, size-independent, and phylogenetic characters, and quantitative cladistic analysis was used to recover growth series for the two taxa. The results supported the synonymy of T. kansasensis with T. nepaeolicus and that T. kansasensis represent juveniles of T. nepaeolicus. A Spearman rank-order correlation test resulted in a significant correlation between two measures of size (total skull length and quadrate height) and maturity. Eleven growth changes were shared across both species, neither of the ontogram topologies showed evidence of skeletal sexual dimorphism, and a previous hypothesis of paedomorphy in T. proriger was not rejected. Finally, a novel hypothesis of anagenesis in Western Interior Seaway Tylosaurus species, driven by peramorphy, is proposed here.
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8
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Madzia D, Cau A. Estimating the evolutionary rates in mosasauroids and plesiosaurs: discussion of niche occupation in Late Cretaceous seas. PeerJ 2020; 8:e8941. [PMID: 32322442 PMCID: PMC7164395 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.8941] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2019] [Accepted: 03/18/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Observations of temporal overlap of niche occupation among Late Cretaceous marine amniotes suggest that the rise and diversification of mosasauroid squamates might have been influenced by competition with or disappearance of some plesiosaur taxa. We discuss that hypothesis through comparisons of the rates of morphological evolution of mosasauroids throughout their evolutionary history with those inferred for contemporary plesiosaur clades. We used expanded versions of two species-level phylogenetic datasets of both these groups, updated them with stratigraphic information, and analyzed using the Bayesian inference to estimate the rates of divergence for each clade. The oscillations in evolutionary rates of the mosasauroid and plesiosaur lineages that overlapped in time and space were then used as a baseline for discussion and comparisons of traits that can affect the shape of the niche structures of aquatic amniotes, such as tooth morphologies, body size, swimming abilities, metabolism, and reproduction. Only two groups of plesiosaurs are considered to be possible niche competitors of mosasauroids: the brachauchenine pliosaurids and the polycotylid leptocleidians. However, direct evidence for interactions between mosasauroids and plesiosaurs is scarce and limited only to large mosasauroids as the predators/scavengers and polycotylids as their prey. The first mosasauroids differed from contemporary plesiosaurs in certain aspects of all discussed traits and no evidence suggests that early representatives of Mosasauroidea diversified after competitions with plesiosaurs. Nevertheless, some mosasauroids, such as tylosaurines, might have seized the opportunity and occupied the niche previously inhabited by brachauchenines, around or immediately after they became extinct, and by polycotylids that decreased their phylogenetic diversity and disparity around the time the large-sized tylosaurines started to flourish.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Madzia
- Department of Evolutionary Paleobiology, Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
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9
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Leblanc ARH, Mohr SR, Caldwell MW. Insights into the anatomy and functional morphology of durophagous mosasaurines (Squamata: Mosasauridae) from a new species of Globidens from Morocco. Zool J Linn Soc 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Durophagous mosasaurs are rare members of Late Cretaceous marine faunal assemblages and new fossil discoveries can shed light on their anatomy, functional morphology and evolutionary history. Here we describe a new species in the durophagous genus Globidens from the Maastrichtian phosphate deposits of Morocco, based on a partial disarticulated skull and cervical vertebral series. This new species shares many anatomical similarities with the only other described Maastrichtian species, G. phosphaticus, but differs in several key features, including the absence of pronounced swellings and sulci on the crushing teeth and the absence of cervical zygosphenes and zygantra. Histological thin sections of a rib from the holotype show that this was not a juvenile individual and reveal osteosclerotic-like bone compactness for the first time in a paddle-bearing mosasaurine. We interpret the highly compact ribs, as well as several peculiarities of the temporal arcade and lower jaws, as adaptations to a diet of benthic, hard-bodied prey.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron R H Leblanc
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
| | - Sydney R Mohr
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
| | - Michael W Caldwell
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
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10
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Madzia D, Cau A. Inferring 'weak spots' in phylogenetic trees: application to mosasauroid nomenclature. PeerJ 2017; 5:e3782. [PMID: 28929018 PMCID: PMC5602675 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3782] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2017] [Accepted: 08/18/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Mosasauroid squamates represented the apex predators within the Late Cretaceous marine and occasionally also freshwater ecosystems. Proper understanding of the origin of their ecological adaptations or paleobiogeographic dispersals requires adequate knowledge of their phylogeny. The studies assessing the position of mosasauroids on the squamate evolutionary tree and their origins have long given conflicting results. The phylogenetic relationships within Mosasauroidea, however, have experienced only little changes throughout the last decades. Considering the substantial improvements in the development of phylogenetic methodology that have undergone in recent years, resulting, among others, in numerous alterations in the phylogenetic hypotheses of other fossil amniotes, we test the robustness in our understanding of mosasauroid beginnings and their evolutionary history. We re-examined a data set that results from modifications assembled in the course of the last 20 years and performed multiple parsimony analyses and Bayesian tip-dating analysis. Following the inferred topologies and the 'weak spots' in the phylogeny of mosasauroids, we revise the nomenclature of the 'traditionally' recognized mosasauroid clades, to acknowledge the overall weakness among branches and the alternative topologies suggested previously, and discuss several factors that might have an impact on the differing phylogenetic hypotheses and their statistical support.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Madzia
- Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Andrea Cau
- Department of Earth, Life and Environmental Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Geological and Paleontological Museum “G. Capellini”, Bologna, Italy
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