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Wang YY, Claessens LPAM, Sullivan C. Deep reptilian evolutionary roots of a major avian respiratory adaptation. Commun Biol 2023; 6:3. [PMID: 36650231 PMCID: PMC9845227 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-04301-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2022] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Vertebral ribs of the anterior thorax in extant birds bear bony prongs called uncinate processes, which improve the mechanical advantage of mm. appendicocostales to move air through the immobile lung and pneumatic air sacs. Among non-avian archosaurs, broad, cartilaginous uncinate processes are present in extant crocodylians, and likely have a ventilatory function. Preserved ossified or calcified uncinate processes are known in several non-avian dinosaurs. However, whether other fossil archosaurs possessed cartilaginous uncinate processes has been unclear. Here, we establish osteological correlates for uncinate attachment to vertebral ribs in extant archosaurs, with which we inferred the presence of uncinate processes in at least 19 fossil archosaur taxa. An ancestral state reconstruction based on the infer distribution suggests that cartilaginous uncinate processes were plesiomorphically present in Dinosauria and arguably in Archosauria, indicating that uncinate processes, and presumably their ventilatory function, have a deep evolutionary history extending back well beyond the origin of birds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan-yin Wang
- grid.17089.370000 0001 2190 316XDepartment of Biological Sciences, CW 405 Biological Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9 Canada
| | - Leon P. A. M. Claessens
- grid.5012.60000 0001 0481 6099Maastricht Science Programme, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Corwin Sullivan
- grid.17089.370000 0001 2190 316XDepartment of Biological Sciences, CW 405 Biological Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9 Canada ,Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, Wembley, AB T0H 3S0 Canada
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Hu J, Forster CA, Xu X, Zhao Q, He Y, Han F. Computed tomographic analysis of the dental system of three Jurassic ceratopsians and implications for the evolution of tooth replacement pattern and diet in early-diverging ceratopsians. eLife 2022; 11:76676. [PMID: 35441592 PMCID: PMC9068210 DOI: 10.7554/elife.76676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2021] [Accepted: 04/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The dental system of ceratopsids is among the most specialized structure in Dinosauria by the presence of tooth batteries and high-angled wear surfaces. However, the origin of this unique dental system is poorly understood due to a lack of relevant knowledge in early-diverging ceratopsians. Here, we study the dental system of three earliest-diverging Chinese ceratopsians: Yinlong and Hualianceratops from the early Late Jurassic of Xinjiang and Chaoyangsaurus from the Late Jurassic of Liaoning Province. By micro-computed tomographic analyses, our study has revealed significant new information regarding the dental system, including no more than five replacement teeth in each jaw quadrant; at most one replacement tooth in each alveolus; nearly full resorption of the functional tooth root; and occlusion with low-angled, concave wear facets. Yinlong displays an increase in the number of maxillary alveoli and a decrease in the number of replacement teeth during ontogeny as well as the retention of functional tooth remnants in the largest individual. Chaoyangsaurus and Hualianceratops have slightly more replacement teeth than Yinlong. In general, early-diverging ceratopsians display a relatively slow tooth replacement rate and likely use gastroliths to triturate foodstuffs. The difference in dietary strategy might have influenced the tooth replacement pattern in later-diverging ceratopsians.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinfeng Hu
- School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China
| | - Catherine A Forster
- Department of Biological Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, United States
| | - Xing Xu
- Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Qi Zhao
- Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yiming He
- Nanjiang Museum of Paleontology, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
| | - Fenglu Han
- School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China
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Son M, Lee YN, Zorigt B, Kobayashi Y, Park JY, Lee S, Kim SH, Lee KY. A new juvenile Yamaceratops (Dinosauria, Ceratopsia) from the Javkhlant Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Mongolia. PeerJ 2022; 10:e13176. [PMID: 35402094 PMCID: PMC8992648 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Here we report a new articulated skeleton of Yamaceratops dorngobiensis (MPC-D 100/553) from the Khugenetjavkhlant locality at the Shine Us Khudag (Javkhlant Formation, ?Santonian-Campanian) of the eastern Gobi Desert, Mongolia, which represents the first substantially complete skeleton and the first juvenile individual of this taxon. The specimen includes a nearly complete cranium and large portions of the vertebral column and appendicular skeleton. Its skull is about 2/3 the size of the holotype specimen, based on mandibular length. Its juvenile ontogenetic stage is confirmed by multiple indicators of skeletal and morphological immaturity known in ceratopsians, such as the long-grained surface texture on the long bones, the smooth external surface on the postorbital, open neurocentral sutures of all caudal vertebrae, a large orbit relative to the postorbital and jugal, the low angle of the lacrimal ventral ramus relative to the maxillary teeth row, narrow frontal, and straight ventral edge of the dentary. Osteohistological analysis of MPC-D 100/553 recovered three lines of arrested growth, implying around 3 years of age when it died, and verified this specimen's immature ontogenetic stage. The specimen adds a new autapomorphy of Yamaceratops, the anteroventral margin of the fungiform dorsal end of the lacrimal being excluded from the antorbital fossa. Furthermore, it shows a unique combination of diagnostic features of some other basal neoceratopsians: the ventrally hooked rostral bone as in Aquilops americanus and very tall middle caudal neural spines about or more than four times as high as the centrum as in Koreaceratops hwaseongensis, Montanoceratops cerorhynchus, and Protoceratops andrewsi. The jugal with the subtemporal ramus deeper than the suborbital ramus as in the holotype specimen is also shared with A. americanus, Liaoceratops yanzigouensis, and juvenile P. andrewsi. Adding 38 new scorings into the recent comprehensive data matrix of basal Neoceratopsia and taking into account the ontogenetically variable characters recovered Y. dorngobiensis as the sister taxon to Euceratopsia (Leptoceratopsidae plus Coronosauria). A second phylogenetic analysis with another matrix for Ceratopsia also supported this position. The new phylogenetic position of Y. dorngobiensis is important in ceratopsian evolution, as this taxon represents one of the basalmost neoceratopsians with a broad, thin frill and hyper-elongated middle caudal neural spines while still being bipedal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minyoung Son
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea,Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
| | - Yuong-Nam Lee
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Badamkhatan Zorigt
- Institute of Paleontology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
| | | | - Jin-Young Park
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Sungjin Lee
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Su-Hwan Kim
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Kang Young Lee
- Department of Physics Education, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, South Korea
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Madzia D, Arbour VM, Boyd CA, Farke AA, Cruzado-Caballero P, Evans DC. The phylogenetic nomenclature of ornithischian dinosaurs. PeerJ 2021; 9:e12362. [PMID: 34966571 PMCID: PMC8667728 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.12362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2021] [Accepted: 09/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Ornithischians form a large clade of globally distributed Mesozoic dinosaurs, and represent one of their three major radiations. Throughout their evolutionary history, exceeding 134 million years, ornithischians evolved considerable morphological disparity, expressed especially through the cranial and osteodermal features of their most distinguishable representatives. The nearly two-century-long research history on ornithischians has resulted in the recognition of numerous diverse lineages, many of which have been named. Following the formative publications establishing the theoretical foundation of phylogenetic nomenclature throughout the 1980s and 1990s, many of the proposed names of ornithischian clades were provided with phylogenetic definitions. Some of these definitions have proven useful and have not been changed, beyond the way they were formulated, since their introduction. Some names, however, have multiple definitions, making their application ambiguous. Recent implementation of the International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature (ICPN, or PhyloCode) offers the opportunity to explore the utility of previously proposed definitions of established taxon names. Since the Articles of the ICPN are not to be applied retroactively, all phylogenetic definitions published prior to its implementation remain informal (and ineffective) in the light of the Code. Here, we revise the nomenclature of ornithischian dinosaur clades; we revisit 76 preexisting ornithischian clade names, review their recent and historical use, and formally establish their phylogenetic definitions. Additionally, we introduce five new clade names: two for robustly supported clades of later-diverging hadrosaurids and ceratopsians, one uniting heterodontosaurids and genasaurs, and two for clades of nodosaurids. Our study marks a key step towards a formal phylogenetic nomenclature of ornithischian dinosaurs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Madzia
- Department of Evolutionary Paleobiology, Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Victoria M. Arbour
- Department of Knowledge, Royal BC Museum, Victoria, BC, Canada
- School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
| | | | - Andrew A. Farke
- Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology at The Webb Schools, Claremont, CA, USA
| | - Penélope Cruzado-Caballero
- Área de Paleontología, Departamento de Biología Animal, Edafología y Geología, Universidad de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología (IIPG), Universidad Nacional de Río Negro (UNRN), Río Negro, Argentina
- Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología (IIPG), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), Río Negro, Argentina
- Grupo Aragosaurus-IUCA, Área de Paleontología, Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - David C. Evans
- Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, Canada
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Yu C, Jiangzuo Q, Tschopp E, Wang H, Norell M. Information in morphological characters. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:11689-11699. [PMID: 34522333 PMCID: PMC8427622 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7874] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2021] [Revised: 06/09/2021] [Accepted: 06/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The construction of morphological character matrices is central to paleontological systematic study, which extracts paleontological information from fossils. Although the word information has been repeatedly mentioned in a wide array of paleontological systematic studies, its meaning has rarely been clarified nor specifically defined. It is important, however, to establish a standard to measure paleontological information because fossils are hardly complete, rendering the recognition of homologous and homoplastic structures difficult. Here, based on information theory, we show the deep connections between paleontological systematic study and communication system engineering. Information is defined as the decrease of uncertainty and it is the information in morphological characters that allows distinguishing operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and reconstructing evolutionary history. We propose that concepts in communication system engineering such as source coding and channel coding, correspond to the construction of diagnostic features and the entire character matrices in paleontological studies. The two coding strategies should be distinguished following typical communication system engineering, because they serve dual purposes. With character matrices from six different vertebrate groups, we analyzed their information properties including source entropy, mutual information, and channel capacity. Estimation of channel capacity shows character saturation of all matrices in transmitting paleontological information, indicating that, due to the presence of noise, oversampling characters not only increases the burden in character scoring, but also may decrease quality of matrices. We further test the use of information entropy, which measures how informative a variable is, as a character weighting criterion in parsimony-based systematic studies. The results show high consistency with existing knowledge with both good resolution and interpretability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Congyu Yu
- Division of PaleontologyAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryNew YorkNYUSA
- Department of Earth and Environmental SciencesColumbia UniversityNew YorkNYUSA
| | - Qigao Jiangzuo
- Division of PaleontologyAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryNew YorkNYUSA
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of SciencesInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and PaleoanthropologyChinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
- Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal EvolutionSchool of Earth and Space SciencesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
- CAS Center for Excellence in Life and PaleoenvironmentBeijingChina
| | - Emanuel Tschopp
- Division of PaleontologyAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryNew YorkNYUSA
- Center of Natural HistoryUniversity of HamburgHamburgGermany
| | - Haibing Wang
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of SciencesInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and PaleoanthropologyChinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
- CAS Center for Excellence in Life and PaleoenvironmentBeijingChina
| | - Mark Norell
- Division of PaleontologyAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryNew YorkNYUSA
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