Virtual reconstruction of the endocranial anatomy of the early Jurassic marine crocodylomorph Pelagosaurus typus (Thalattosuchia)

Pierce, Stephanie E. and Williams, Megan and Benson, Roger B.J. (2017) Virtual reconstruction of the endocranial anatomy of the early Jurassic marine crocodylomorph Pelagosaurus typus (Thalattosuchia). PeerJ, 5. e3225. ISSN 2167-8359 DOI https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3225

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Abstract

Thalattosuchia is a radiation of aquatic crocodylomorphs that attained a worldwide distribution at low latitudes during the Early Jurassic—Early Cretaceous (Mannion et al., 2015). They are characterized by having a longirostrine skull morphology (long, narrow snout), although some taxa possessed relatively shorter and more robust snouts (e.g., Dakosaurus; Gasparini, Pol & Spalletti, 2006). The group is divided into two major clades, the teleosauroids, which were ‘gavial-like’ near shore predators, and the highly-derived pelagic metriorhynchoids (i.e., metriorhynchids), which exhibited modified flipper-like forelimbs, a crescentic fish-like tail, and loss of dermal armour. The morphology, phylogeny, and evolutionary dynamics of the Thalattosuchia has been under intense investigation over the past decade (e.g., Mueller-Töwe, 2005; Mueller-Töwe, 2006; Jouve, 2009; Pierce, Angielczyk & Rayfield, 2009a; Pol & Gasparini, 2009; Young & De Andrade, 2009; Young et al., 2010; Young, Bell & Brusatte, 2011; Martin & Vincent, 2013; Stubbs et al., 2013; Cau, 2014; Martin et al., 2014; Jouve et al., 2016; Young et al., 2016) with some recent studies suggesting that thalattosuchians may be relatively early diverging members of the Crocodyliformes (e.g., Wilberg, 2015a). Moreover, there has been increasing interest in reconstructing their functional paleoecology, with studies focusing on feeding mechanics and niche partitioning (e.g., Pierce, Angielczyk & Rayfield, 2009b; De Andrade et al., 2010; Young et al., 2010; Stubbs et al., 2013; Young et al., 2013), as well as adaptations for aquatic locomotion (e.g., Hua, 1994; Hua & De Buffrenil, 1996; Hua, 2003; Molnar et al., 2015).

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	2017AREP; IA72
Subjects:	04 - Palaeobiology
Divisions:	04 - Palaeobiology 07 - Gold Open Access 12 - PhD
Journal or Publication Title:	PeerJ
Volume:	5
Page Range:	e3225
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3225
Depositing User:	Sarah Humbert
Date Deposited:	08 Jan 2019 12:38
Last Modified:	08 Jan 2019 12:38
URI:	http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/id/eprint/4389

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