[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]

Re: [dinosaur] Crocodile herbivory + thalattosuchian from Tunisia




A news items and correcting the subject line (sorry if Triassophiles got excited...)

Crocodiles thriving around Florida nuclear plant

https://www.livescience.com/65994-crocodiles-nuclear-plant-florida.html

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/american-crocodiles-thriving-outside-nuclear-plant-1.4516628
***
Dinosaurs for dinner...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/science/dinosaurs-meat-taste.html


On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 11:17 AM Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com> wrote:

Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com

Recent papers:


Roger B.J. Benson & Pedro L. Godoy (2019)
Evolution: Much on the Menu for Ancient Crocs.
Current Biology 29(14): PR683-R685
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.004
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)30697-9


Crocodylians are carnivores, but their extinct relatives had wider-ranging diets. A new study shows that herbivory evolved often in these animals, and that their teeth rivalled those of mammals in terms of complexity.

===

Jeremy Martin (2019)
On a longirostrine crocodylomorph (Thalattosuchia) from the Middle Jurassic of Tunisia.
Geobios (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geobios.2019.07.006
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016699519300178



The geographic origins and distributional patterns of Gondwanan teleosauroids during the Jurassic have been fiercely debated over many years. Unlike the rich thalattosuchian fossil record from Laurasia, teleosauroids described from Gondwanan ecosystems are relatively scarce. Most of the known occurrences consist of isolated and fragmentary bones collected in Madagascar, Morocco, Tunisia, India, and Ethiopia. Nevertheless, these specimens, although fragmentary, have provided substantial information for assessing the evolutionary scenarios of multiple teleosauroid lineages and have shown that certain teleosauroid taxa were widespread rather than endemic to Western Europe. Here, a partial skeleton of a teleosauroid crocodylomorph is described. It was found in the late Middle Jurassic (Callovian) deposits of southeastern Tunisia by a team of French and Tunisian paleontologists; however, it has not been thoroughly studied at both macro- and microscopic scale until now. The new specimen is composed of an incomplete symphyseal portion of a lower jaw in addition to isolated teeth, osteoderms (both dorsal and ventral), thoracic and caudal vertebrae, and several thoracic ribs. The specimen has several morphological characters that are reminiscent of longirostrine teleosauroids. Due to the total absence of other cranial bones, as well as the pectoral and pelvic girdles, the specimen is not diagnostic to the generic level. However, these new remains represent the youngest ascertained occurrence of a definitive non-machimosaurin teleosauroid in Africa, provide additional insights into the geographic distribution of Thalattosuchia, and raise once again the question whether the origins of this clade were Gondwanan or Laurasian.



Virus-free. www.avg.com