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Cribb AT, Formoso KK, Woolley CH, Beech J, Brophy S, Byrne P, Cassady VC, Godbold AL, Larina E, Maxeiner PP, Wu YH, Corsetti FA, Bottjer DJ. Contrasting terrestrial and marine ecospace dynamics after the end-Triassic mass extinction event. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20232232. [PMID: 38052241 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 12/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Mass extinctions have fundamentally altered the structure of the biosphere throughout Earth's history. The ecological severity of mass extinctions is well studied in marine ecosystems by categorizing marine taxa into functional groups based on 'ecospace' approaches, but the ecological response of terrestrial ecosystems to mass extinctions is less well understood due to the lack of a comparable methodology. Here, we present a new terrestrial ecospace framework that categorizes fauna into functional groups as defined by tiering, motility and feeding traits. We applied the new terrestrial and traditional marine ecospace analyses to data from the Paleobiology Database across the end-Triassic mass extinction-a time of catastrophic global warming-to compare changes between the marine and terrestrial biospheres. We found that terrestrial functional groups experienced higher extinction severity, that taxonomic and functional richness are more tightly coupled in the terrestrial, and that the terrestrial realm continued to experience high ecological dissimilarity in the wake of the extinction. Although signals of extinction severity and ecological turnover are sensitive to the quality of the terrestrial fossil record, our findings suggest greater ecological pressure from the end-Triassic mass extinction on terrestrial ecosystems than marine ecosystems, contributing to more prolonged terrestrial ecological flux.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alison T Cribb
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - Kiersten K Formoso
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- The Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - C Henrik Woolley
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- The Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - James Beech
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Shannon Brophy
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Paul Byrne
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- The Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Victoria C Cassady
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Amanda L Godbold
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Ekaterina Larina
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Philip-Peter Maxeiner
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Yun-Hsin Wu
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- The Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Frank A Corsetti
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - David J Bottjer
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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2
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Kulkarni SS, Steiner HG, Garcia EL, Iuri H, Jones RR, Ballesteros JA, Gainett G, Graham MR, Harms D, Lyle R, Ojanguren-Affilastro AA, Santibañez-López CE, Silva de Miranda G, Cushing PE, Gavish-Regev E, Sharma PP. Neglected no longer: Phylogenomic resolution of higher-level relationships in Solifugae. iScience 2023; 26:107684. [PMID: 37694155 PMCID: PMC10484990 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2023] [Revised: 06/26/2023] [Accepted: 08/14/2023] [Indexed: 09/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Advanced sequencing technologies have expedited resolution of higher-level arthropod relationships. Yet, dark branches persist, principally among groups occurring in cryptic habitats. Among chelicerates, Solifugae ("camel spiders") is the last order lacking a higher-level phylogeny and have thus been historically characterized as "neglected [arachnid] cousins". Though renowned for aggression, remarkable running speed, and xeric adaptation, inferring solifuge relationships has been hindered by inaccessibility of diagnostic morphological characters, whereas molecular investigations have been limited to one of 12 recognized families. Our phylogenomic dataset via capture of ultraconserved elements sampling all extant families recovered a well-resolved phylogeny, with two distinct groups of New World taxa nested within a broader Paleotropical radiation. Divergence times using fossil calibrations inferred that Solifugae radiated by the Permian, and most families diverged prior to the Paleogene-Cretaceous extinction, likely driven by continental breakup. We establish Boreosolifugae new suborder uniting five Laurasian families, and Australosolifugae new suborder uniting seven Gondwanan families using morphological and biogeographic signal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siddharth S. Kulkarni
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Hugh G. Steiner
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Erika L. Garcia
- Department of Zoology, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, CO 80205, USA
| | - Hernán Iuri
- División de Aracnología, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”, Buenos Aires 1405DJR, Argentina
| | - R. Ryan Jones
- Department of Zoology, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, CO 80205, USA
| | | | - Guilherme Gainett
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Matthew R. Graham
- Department of Biology, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT 06226, USA
| | - Danilo Harms
- Museum of Nature Hamburg - Zoology, Department of Invertebrates, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Robin Lyle
- Biosystematics: Arachnology, ARC—Plant Health and Protection, Pretoria, South Africa
| | | | | | - Gustavo Silva de Miranda
- Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA
| | - Paula E. Cushing
- Department of Zoology, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, CO 80205, USA
| | - Efrat Gavish-Regev
- The National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
| | - Prashant P. Sharma
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
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3
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Brownstein CD. A late-surviving phytosaur from the northern Atlantic rift reveals climate constraints on Triassic reptile biogeography. BMC Ecol Evol 2023; 23:33. [PMID: 37460985 PMCID: PMC10351158 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-023-02136-8] [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: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 06/15/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The origins of all major living reptile clades, including the one leading to birds, lie in the Triassic. Following the largest mass extinction in Earth's history at the end of the Permian, the earliest definite members of the three major living reptile clades, the turtles (Testudines), crocodylians and birds (Archosauria), and lizards, snakes, amphisbaenians, and Tuatara (Lepidosauria) appeared. Recent analyses of the Triassic reptile fossil record suggest that the earliest diversifications in all three of these clades were tightly controlled by abrupt paleoclimate fluctuations and concordant environmental changes. Yet, this has only been preliminarily tested using information from evolutionary trees. Phytosauria consists of superficially crocodylian-like archosaurs that either form the sister to the crown or are the earliest divergence on the crocodylian stem and are present throughout the Triassic, making this clade an excellent test case for examining this biogeographic hypothesis. RESULTS Here, I describe a new phytosaur, Jupijkam paleofluvialis gen. et sp. nov., from the Late Triassic of Nova Scotia, Canada, which at that time sat in northern Pangaea near the northern terminus of the great central Pangean rift. As one of the northernmost occurrences of Phytosauria, J. paleofluvialis provides critical new biogeographic data that enables revised estimations of phytosaur historical biogeography along phylogenies of this clade built under multiple methodologies. Reconstructions of phytosaur historical biogeography based on different phylogenies and biogeographic models suggest that phytosaurs originated in northern Pangaea, spread southward, and then dispersed back northward at least once more during the Late Triassic. CONCLUSIONS The results presented in this study link phytosaur biogeography to major changes to Triassic global climate and aridity. Together with the earliest dinosaurs and several other reptile lineages, phytosaur diversification and migration appear to have been restricted by the formation and loss of arid belts across the Pangean supercontinent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chase Doran Brownstein
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Stamford Museum and Nature Center, Stamford, CT, USA.
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4
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Landwehrs J, Feulner G, Willeit M, Petri S, Sames B, Wagreich M, Whiteside JH, Olsen PE. Modes of Pangean lake level cyclicity driven by astronomical climate pacing modulated by continental position and pCO[Formula: see text]. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2203818119. [PMID: 36343239 PMCID: PMC9674254 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2203818119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Orbital cyclicity is a fundamental pacemaker of Earth's climate system. The Newark-Hartford Basin (NHB) lake sediment record of eastern North America contains compelling geologic expressions of this cyclicity, reflecting variations of climatic conditions in tropical Pangea during the Late Triassic and earliest Jurassic (~233 to 199 Ma). Climate modeling enables a deeper mechanistic understanding of Earth system modulation during this unique greenhouse and supercontinent period. We link major features of the NHB record to the combined climatic effects of orbital forcing, paleogeographic changes, and atmospheric pCO[Formula: see text] variations. An ensemble of transient, orbitally driven climate simulations is assessed for nine time slices, three atmospheric pCO[Formula: see text] values, and two paleogeographic reconstructions. Climatic transitions from tropical humid to more seasonal and ultimately semiarid are associated with tectonic drift of the NHB from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text]. The modeled orbital modulation of the precipitation-evaporation balance is most pronounced during the 220 to 200 Ma interval, whereas it is limited by weak seasonality and increasing aridity before and after this interval. Lower pCO[Formula: see text] at around 205 Ma contributes to drier climates and could have led to the observed damping of sediment cyclicity. Eccentricity-modulated precession dominates the orbitally driven climate response in the NHB region. High obliquity further amplifies summer precipitation through the seasonal shifts in the tropical rainfall belt. Regions with other proxy records are also assessed, providing guidance toward an integrated picture of global astronomical climate forcing in the Late Triassic and ultimately of other periods in Earth history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Landwehrs
- Department of Geology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
- Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, D-14412 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Georg Feulner
- Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, D-14412 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Matteo Willeit
- Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, D-14412 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Stefan Petri
- Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, D-14412 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Benjamin Sames
- Department of Geology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Michael Wagreich
- Department of Geology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Jessica H. Whiteside
- Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, SO14 3ZH Southampton, United Kingdom
- Department of Geological Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182
| | - Paul E. Olsen
- Biology and Paleo Environment Division, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, 10968 NY
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5
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Parker WG, Nesbitt SJ, Irmis RB, Martz JW, Marsh AD, Brown MA, Stocker MR, Werning S. Osteology and relationships of Revueltosaurus callenderi (Archosauria: Suchia) from the Upper Triassic (Norian) Chinle Formation of Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, United States. Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2022; 305:2353-2414. [PMID: 34585850 PMCID: PMC9544919 DOI: 10.1002/ar.24757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Revised: 06/24/2021] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Once known solely from dental material and thought to represent an early ornithischian dinosaur, the early-diverging pseudosuchian Revueltosaurus callenderi is described from a minimum of 12 skeletons from a monodominant bonebed in the upper part of the Chinle Formation of Arizona. This material includes nearly the entire skeleton and possesses a combination of plesiomorphic and derived character states that help clarify ingroup relationships within Pseudosuchia. A phylogenetic analysis recovers R. callenderi in a clade with Aetosauria and Acaenasuchus geoffreyi that is named Aetosauriformes. Key autapomorphies of R. callenderi include a skull that is longer than the femur, a complete carapace of dermal armor including paramedian and lateral rows, as well as ventral osteoderms, and a tail end sheathed in bone. Histology of the femur and associated osteoderms demonstrate that R. callenderi was slow growing and that the individuals from the bonebed were not young juveniles but had not ceased growing. A review of other material assigned to Revueltosaurus concludes that the genus cannot be adequately diagnosed based on the type materials of the three assigned species and that only R. callenderi can be confidently referred to Revueltosaurus.
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Affiliation(s)
- William G. Parker
- Department of Resource Management and SciencePetrified Forest National ParkPetrified ForestArizonaUSA
| | | | - Randall B. Irmis
- Natural History Museum of UtahUniversity of UtahSalt Lake CityUtahUSA
- Department of Geology and GeophysicsUniversity of UtahSalt Lake CityUtahUSA
| | - Jeffrey W. Martz
- Department of Natural SciencesUniversity of Houston‐DowntownHoustonTexasUSA
| | - Adam D. Marsh
- Department of Resource Management and SciencePetrified Forest National ParkPetrified ForestArizonaUSA
| | - Matthew A. Brown
- Texas Vertebrate Paleontology Collections, The Jackson School of GeosciencesUniversity of Texas at AustinAustinTexasUSA
| | | | - Sarah Werning
- Department of AnatomyDes Moines UniversityDes MoinesIowaUSA
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6
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Griffin CT, Wynd BM, Munyikwa D, Broderick TJ, Zondo M, Tolan S, Langer MC, Nesbitt SJ, Taruvinga HR. Africa's oldest dinosaurs reveal early suppression of dinosaur distribution. Nature 2022; 609:313-319. [PMID: 36045297 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05133-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2021] [Accepted: 07/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The vertebrate lineages that would shape Mesozoic and Cenozoic terrestrial ecosystems originated across Triassic Pangaea1-11. By the Late Triassic (Carnian stage, ~235 million years ago), cosmopolitan 'disaster faunas' (refs. 12-14) had given way to highly endemic assemblages12,13 on the supercontinent. Testing the tempo and mode of the establishment of this endemism is challenging-there were few geographic barriers to dispersal across Pangaea during the Late Triassic. Instead, palaeolatitudinal climate belts, and not continental boundaries, are proposed to have controlled distribution15-18. During this time of high endemism, dinosaurs began to disperse and thus offer an opportunity to test the timing and drivers of this biogeographic pattern. Increased sampling can test this prediction: if dinosaurs initially dispersed under palaeolatitudinal-driven endemism, then an assemblage similar to those of South America4,19-21 and India19,22-including the earliest dinosaurs-should be present in Carnian deposits in south-central Africa. Here we report a new Carnian assemblage from Zimbabwe that includes Africa's oldest definitive dinosaurs, including a nearly complete skeleton of the sauropodomorph Mbiresaurus raathi gen. et sp. nov. This assemblage resembles other dinosaur-bearing Carnian assemblages, suggesting that a similar vertebrate fauna ranged high-latitude austral Pangaea. The distribution of the first dinosaurs is correlated with palaeolatitude-linked climatic barriers, and dinosaurian dispersal to the rest of the supercontinent was delayed until these barriers relaxed, suggesting that climatic controls influenced the initial composition of the terrestrial faunas that persist to this day.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher T Griffin
- Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA. .,Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. .,Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
| | - Brenen M Wynd
- Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA
| | - Darlington Munyikwa
- National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.,Department of Geology and Paleontology, Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
| | | | - Michel Zondo
- Department of Geology and Paleontology, Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
| | | | - Max C Langer
- Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | | | - Hazel R Taruvinga
- Department of Geology and Paleontology, Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.,School of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo, Zimbabwe
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7
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Olsen P, Sha J, Fang Y, Chang C, Whiteside JH, Kinney S, Sues HD, Kent D, Schaller M, Vajda V. Arctic ice and the ecological rise of the dinosaurs. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabo6342. [PMID: 35776799 PMCID: PMC10883366 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo6342] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Abundant lake ice-rafted debris in Late Triassic and earliest Jurassic strata of the Junggar Basin of northwestern China (paleolatitude ~71°N) indicates that freezing winter temperatures typified the forested Arctic, despite a persistence of extremely high levels of atmospheric Pco2 (partial pressure of CO2). Phylogenetic bracket analysis shows that non-avian dinosaurs were primitively insulated, enabling them to access rich deciduous and evergreen Arctic vegetation, even under freezing winter conditions. Transient but intense volcanic winters associated with massive eruptions and lowered light levels led to the end-Triassic mass extinction (201.6 Ma) on land, decimating all medium- to large-sized nondinosaurian, noninsulated continental reptiles. In contrast, insulated dinosaurs were already well adapted to cold temperatures, and not only survived but also underwent a rapid adaptive radiation and ecological expansion in the Jurassic, taking over regions formerly dominated by large noninsulated reptiles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Olsen
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10968, USA
| | - Jingeng Sha
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
| | - Yanan Fang
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
| | - Clara Chang
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10968, USA
| | - Jessica H Whiteside
- School of Ocean and Earth Sciences, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
| | - Sean Kinney
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10968, USA
| | - Hans-Dieter Sues
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
| | - Dennis Kent
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10968, USA
- Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Morgan Schaller
- Earth and Environmental Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
| | - Vivi Vajda
- Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden
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8
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Abstract
One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground-sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indicate that there are ∼73,000 tree species globally, among which ∼9,000 tree species are yet to be discovered. Roughly 40% of undiscovered tree species are in South America. Moreover, almost one-third of all tree species to be discovered may be rare, with very low populations and limited spatial distribution (likely in remote tropical lowlands and mountains). These findings highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes in land use and climate, which disproportionately threaten rare species and thus, global tree richness.
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9
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Northward dispersal of dinosaurs from Gondwana to Greenland at the mid-Norian (215-212 Ma, Late Triassic) dip in atmospheric pCO 2. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2020778118. [PMID: 33593914 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2020778118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The earliest dinosaurs (theropods and sauropodomorphs) are found in fossiliferous early Late Triassic strata dated to about 230 million years ago (Ma), mainly in northwestern Argentina and southern Brazil in the Southern Hemisphere temperate belt of what was Gondwana in Pangea. Sauropodomorphs, which are not known for the entire Triassic in then tropical North America, eventually appear 15 million years later in the Northern Hemisphere temperate belt of Laurasia. The Pangea supercontinent was traversable in principle by terrestrial vertebrates, so the main barrier to be surmounted for dispersal between hemispheres was likely to be climatic; in particular, the intense aridity of tropical desert belts and unstable climate in the equatorial humid belt accompanying high atmospheric pCO2 that characterized the Late Triassic. We revisited the chronostratigraphy of the dinosaur-bearing Fleming Fjord Group of central East Greenland and, with additional data, produced a correlation of a detailed magnetostratigraphy from more than 325 m of composite section from two field areas to the age-calibrated astrochronostratigraphic polarity time scale. This age model places the earliest occurrence of sauropodomorphs (Plateosaurus) in their northernmost range to ∼214 Ma. The timing is within the 215 to 212 Ma (mid-Norian) window of a major, robust dip in atmospheric pCO2 of uncertain origin but which may have resulted in sufficiently lowered climate barriers that facilitated the initial major dispersal of the herbivorous sauropodomorphs to the temperate belt of the Northern Hemisphere. Indications are that carnivorous theropods may have had dispersals that were less subject to the same climate constraints.
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10
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Hematite reconstruction of Late Triassic hydroclimate over the Colorado Plateau. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2004343118. [PMID: 33563760 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2004343118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Hematite is the most abundant surficial iron oxide on Earth resulting from near-surface processes that make it important for addressing numerous geologic problems. While red beds have proved to be excellent paleomagnetic recorders, the early diagenetic origin of hematite in these units is often questioned. Here, we validate pigmentary hematite ("pigmentite") as a proxy indicator for the Late Triassic environment and its penecontemporaneous origin by analyzing spectrophotometric measurements of a 14.5-My-long red bed sequence in scientific drill core CPCP-PFNP13-1A of the Chinle Formation, Arizona. Pigmentite concentrations in the red beds track the evolving pattern of the Late Triassic monsoon and indicate a long-term rise in aridity beginning at ∼215 Ma followed by increased oscillatory climate change at ∼213 Ma. These monsoonal changes are attributed to the northward drift of the Colorado Plateau as part of Laurentia into the arid subtropics during a time of fluctuating CO2 Our results refine the record of the Late Triassic monsoon and indicate significant changes in rainfall proximal to the Adamanian-Revueltian biotic transition that thus may have contributed to apparent faunal and floral events at 216 to 213 Ma.
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11
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Kligman BT, Marsh AD, Sues HD, Sidor CA. A new non-mammalian eucynodont from the Chinle Formation (Triassic: Norian), and implications for the early Mesozoic equatorial cynodont record. Biol Lett 2020; 16:20200631. [PMID: 33142088 PMCID: PMC7728676 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2020.0631] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2020] [Accepted: 10/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The Upper Triassic tetrapod fossil record of North America features a pronounced discrepancy between the assemblages of present-day Virginia and North Carolina relative to those of the American Southwest. While both are typified by large-bodied archosaurian reptiles like phytosaurs and aetosaurs, the latter notably lacks substantial representation of mammal relatives, including cynodonts. Recently collected non-mammalian eucynodontian jaws from the middle Norian Blue Mesa Member of the Chinle Formation in northeastern Arizona shed light on the Triassic cynodont record from western equatorial Pangaea. Importantly, they reveal new biogeographic connections to eastern equatorial Pangaea as well as southern portions of the supercontinent. This discovery indicates that the faunal dissimilarity previously recognized between the western and eastern portions of equatorial Pangaea is overstated and possibly reflects longstanding sampling biases, rather than a true biogeographic pattern.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ben T. Kligman
- Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
- Petrified Forest National Park, 1 Park Road, Petrified Forest, AZ 86028, USA
| | - Adam D. Marsh
- Petrified Forest National Park, 1 Park Road, Petrified Forest, AZ 86028, USA
| | - Hans-Dieter Sues
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, MRC 121, PO Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
| | - Christian A. Sidor
- Department of Biology and Burke Museum, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1800, USA
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12
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Kammerer CF. Revision of the Tanzanian dicynodont Dicynodon huenei (Therapsida: Anomodontia) from the Permian Usili Formation. PeerJ 2019; 7:e7420. [PMID: 31497385 PMCID: PMC6708577 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7420] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2019] [Accepted: 07/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
A single species of the dicynodontoid dicynodont Dicynodon is currently recognized from the late Permian Usili Formation of Tanzania: Dicynodon hueneiHaughton, 1932. Restudy of the known Tanzanian materials of D. huenei demonstrates that they represent two distinct morphotypes, here considered separate taxa. The holotype of D. huenei is not referable to Dicynodon and instead is transferred to the genus Daptocephalus (but retained as a valid species, Daptocephalus huenei comb. nov.). A number of published dicynodontoid specimens from the Usili Formation, however, are referable to Dicynodon, and are here recognized as a new species (Dicynodon angielczyki sp. nov.) Dicynodon angielczyki can be distinguished from its South African congener Dicynodon lacerticeps by the presence of an expansion of the squamosal and jugal beneath the postorbital bar and a curved, posterolateral expansion of the squamosal behind the temporal fenestra. Inclusion of Dicynodon angielczyki and D. huenei in a phylogenetic analysis supports their referral to Dicynodon and Daptocephalus (respectively). These results indicate higher basinal endemism in large late Permian dicynodonts than previously thought, a sharp contrast to the cosmopolitanism in the group in the earliest Triassic.
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13
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Mannion PD, Upchurch P, Schwarz D, Wings O. Taxonomic affinities of the putative titanosaurs from the Late Jurassic Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania: phylogenetic and biogeographic implications for eusauropod dinosaur evolution. Zool J Linn Soc 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zly068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Philip D Mannion
- Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Paul Upchurch
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, London, UK
| | | | - Oliver Wings
- Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover, Hannover, Germany
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14
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Brocklehurst N, Dunne EM, Cashmore DD, Frӧbisch J. Physical and environmental drivers of Paleozoic tetrapod dispersal across Pangaea. Nat Commun 2018; 9:5216. [PMID: 30523258 PMCID: PMC6284015 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07623-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2018] [Accepted: 11/08/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The Carboniferous and Permian were crucial intervals in the establishment of terrestrial ecosystems, which occurred alongside substantial environmental and climate changes throughout the globe, as well as the final assembly of the supercontinent of Pangaea. The influence of these changes on tetrapod biogeography is highly contentious, with some authors suggesting a cosmopolitan fauna resulting from a lack of barriers, and some identifying provincialism. Here we carry out a detailed historical biogeographic analysis of late Paleozoic tetrapods to study the patterns of dispersal and vicariance. A likelihood-based approach to infer ancestral areas is combined with stochastic mapping to assess rates of vicariance and dispersal. Both the late Carboniferous and the end-Guadalupian are characterised by a decrease in dispersal and a vicariance peak in amniotes and amphibians. The first of these shifts is attributed to orogenic activity, the second to increasing climate heterogeneity. The late Paleozoic was a time of major transition for tetrapods. Here, Brocklehurst and colleagues analyse the biogeography of Paleozoic tetrapods and find shifts in dispersal and vicariance associated with Carboniferous mountain formation and end-Guadalupian climate variability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neil Brocklehurst
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3AN, UK. .,Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Emma M Dunne
- School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
| | - Daniel D Cashmore
- School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
| | - Jӧrg Frӧbisch
- Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany.,Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstraße 42, Berlin, 10115, Germany
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15
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Hoffman DK, Heckert AB, Zanno LE. Disparate Growth Strategies within Aetosauria: Novel Histologic Data from the Aetosaur
Coahomasuchus chathamensis. Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2018; 302:1504-1515. [DOI: 10.1002/ar.24019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2018] [Revised: 08/08/2018] [Accepted: 09/15/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Andrew B. Heckert
- Department of Geological and Environmental SciencesAppalachian State University Boone North Carolina
| | - Lindsay E. Zanno
- Department of Biological SciencesNorth Carolina State University Raleigh North Carolina
- Division of PaleontologyNorth Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Raleigh North Carolina
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16
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Empirical evidence for stability of the 405-kiloyear Jupiter-Venus eccentricity cycle over hundreds of millions of years. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:6153-6158. [PMID: 29735684 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1800891115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The Newark-Hartford astrochronostratigraphic polarity timescale (APTS) was developed using a theoretically constant 405-kiloyear eccentricity cycle linked to gravitational interactions with Jupiter-Venus as a tuning target and provides a major timing calibration for about 30 million years of Late Triassic and earliest Jurassic time. While the 405-ky cycle is both unimodal and the most metronomic of the major orbital cycles thought to pace Earth's climate in numerical solutions, there has been little empirical confirmation of that behavior, especially back before the limits of orbital solutions at about 50 million years before present. Moreover, the APTS is anchored only at its younger end by U-Pb zircon dates at 201.6 million years before present and could even be missing a number of 405-ky cycles. To test the validity of the dangling APTS and orbital periodicities, we recovered a diagnostic magnetic polarity sequence in the volcaniclastic-bearing Chinle Formation in a scientific drill core from Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona) that provides an unambiguous correlation to the APTS. New high precision U-Pb detrital zircon dates from the core are indistinguishable from ages predicted by the APTS back to 215 million years before present. The agreement shows that the APTS is continuous and supports a stable 405-kiloyear cycle well beyond theoretical solutions. The validated Newark-Hartford APTS can be used as a robust framework to help differentiate provinciality from global temporal patterns in the ecological rise of early dinosaurs in the Late Triassic, amongst other problems.
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17
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Ye Z, Damgaard J, Burckhardt D, Gibbs G, Yuan J, Yang H, Bu W. Phylogeny and historical biogeography of Gondwanan moss-bugs (Insecta: Hemiptera: Coleorrhyncha: Peloridiidae). Cladistics 2018; 35:135-149. [DOI: 10.1111/cla.12237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/13/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Zhen Ye
- Institute of Entomology; College of Life Sciences; Nankai University; 94 Weijin Road Tianjin 300071 China
| | - Jakob Damgaard
- Natural History Museum of Denmark, Zoological Museum; Universitetsparken 15 2100 Copenhagen Ø Denmark
| | - Daniel Burckhardt
- Naturhistorisches Museum; Augustinergasse 2 CH-4052 Basel Switzerland
| | - George Gibbs
- School of Biological Sciences; Victoria University of Wellington; Wellington New Zealand
| | - Juanjuan Yuan
- Institute of Entomology; College of Life Sciences; Nankai University; 94 Weijin Road Tianjin 300071 China
| | - Huanhuan Yang
- Institute of Entomology; College of Life Sciences; Nankai University; 94 Weijin Road Tianjin 300071 China
| | - Wenjun Bu
- Institute of Entomology; College of Life Sciences; Nankai University; 94 Weijin Road Tianjin 300071 China
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18
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Hoffman DK, Heckert AB, Zanno LE. Under the armor: X-ray computed tomographic reconstruction of the internal skeleton of Coahomasuchus chathamensis (Archosauria: Aetosauria) from the Upper Triassic of North Carolina, USA, and a phylogenetic analysis of Aetosauria. PeerJ 2018; 6:e4368. [PMID: 29456892 PMCID: PMC5815331 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2017] [Accepted: 01/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Aetosauria is a clade of heavily armored, quadrupedal omnivorous to herbivorous archosaurs known from the Late Triassic across what was the supercontinent of Pangea. Their abundance in many deposits relative to the paucity of other Triassic herbivores indicates that they were key components of Late Triassic ecosystems. However, their evolutionary relationships remain contentious due, in large part, to their extensive dermal armor, which often obstructs observation of internal skeletal anatomy and limits access to potentially informative characters. In an attempt to address this problem we reanalyzed the holotype of a recently described species of Coahomasuchus, C. chathamensis, from the Sanford sub-basin of North Carolina using computed tomography (CT). CT scans of the holotype specimen clarify preservation of the skeleton, revealing several articulated vertebrae and ribs, an isolated vertebra, left ulna, left scapula, and the right humerus, though none of the material resulted in updated phylogenetic scorings. Reexamination of aetosaur materials from the holotype locality also indicates that several isolated osteoderms and elements of the appendicular skeleton are newly referable. Based on these results, we update the Coahomasuchus chathamensis hypodigm and conduct a revised phylogenetic analysis with improved character scorings for Coahomasuchus and several other aetosaurs. Our study recovers Coahomasuchus in a polytomy with Aetosaurus and the Typothoracinae, in contrast with a recent analysis that recovered Coahomasuchus as a wild-card taxon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Devin K. Hoffman
- Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA, United States of America
| | - Andrew B. Heckert
- Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, United States of America
| | - Lindsay E. Zanno
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States of America
- Division of Paleontology, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC, United States of America
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19
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Button DJ, Lloyd GT, Ezcurra MD, Butler RJ. Mass extinctions drove increased global faunal cosmopolitanism on the supercontinent Pangaea. Nat Commun 2017; 8:733. [PMID: 29018290 PMCID: PMC5635108 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00827-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2017] [Accepted: 07/28/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Mass extinctions have profoundly impacted the evolution of life through not only reducing taxonomic diversity but also reshaping ecosystems and biogeographic patterns. In particular, they are considered to have driven increased biogeographic cosmopolitanism, but quantitative tests of this hypothesis are rare and have not explicitly incorporated information on evolutionary relationships. Here we quantify faunal cosmopolitanism using a phylogenetic network approach for 891 terrestrial vertebrate species spanning the late Permian through Early Jurassic. This key interval witnessed the Permian–Triassic and Triassic–Jurassic mass extinctions, the onset of fragmentation of the supercontinent Pangaea, and the origins of dinosaurs and many modern vertebrate groups. Our results recover significant increases in global faunal cosmopolitanism following both mass extinctions, driven mainly by new, widespread taxa, leading to homogenous ‘disaster faunas’. Cosmopolitanism subsequently declines in post-recovery communities. These shared patterns in both biotic crises suggest that mass extinctions have predictable influences on animal distribution and may shed light on biodiversity loss in extant ecosystems. Mass extinctions are thought to produce ‘disaster faunas’, communities dominated by a small number of widespread species. Here, Button et al. develop a phylogenetic network approach to test this hypothesis and find that mass extinctions did increase faunal cosmopolitanism across Pangaea during the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J Button
- School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. .,North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC, 27607, USA. .,Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, 3510 Thomas Hall, Campus Box 7614, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA.
| | - Graeme T Lloyd
- School of Earth and Environment, Maths/Earth and Environment Building, The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Martín D Ezcurra
- School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.,Sección Paleontología de Vertebrados, CONICET-Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia", Avenida Ángel Gallardo 470, Buenos Aires, C1405DJR, Argentina
| | - Richard J Butler
- School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
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20
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Lessner EJ, Stocker MR, Smith ND, Turner AH, Irmis RB, Nesbitt SJ. A new rauisuchid (Archosauria, Pseudosuchia) from the Upper Triassic (Norian) of New Mexico increases the diversity and temporal range of the clade. PeerJ 2016; 4:e2336. [PMID: 27651983 PMCID: PMC5018681 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.2336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2016] [Accepted: 07/17/2016] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Rauisuchids are large (2–6 m in length), carnivorous, and quadrupedal pseudosuchian archosaurs closely related to crocodylomorphs. Though geographically widespread, fossils of this clade are relatively rare in Late Triassic assemblages. The middle Norian (∼212 Ma) Hayden Quarry of northern New Mexico, USA, in the Petrified Forest Member of the Chinle Formation, has yielded isolated postcranial elements and associated skull elements of a new species of rauisuchid. Vivaron haydeni gen. et. sp. nov. is diagnosed by the presence of two posteriorly directed prongs at the posterior end of the maxilla for articulation with the jugal. The holotype maxilla and referred elements are similar to those of the rauisuchid Postosuchus kirkpatricki from the southwestern United States, but V. haydeni shares several maxillary apomorphies (e.g., a distinct dropoff to the antorbital fossa that is not a ridge, a straight ventral margin, and a well defined dental groove) with the rauisuchid Teratosaurus suevicus from the Norian of Germany. Despite their geographic separation, this morphological evidence implies a close phylogenetic relationship between V. haydeni and T. suevicus. The morphology preserved in the new Hayden Quarry rauisuchid V. haydeni supports previously proposed and new synapomorphies for nodes within Rauisuchidae. The discovery of Vivaron haydeni reveals an increased range of morphological disparity for rauisuchids from the low-paleolatitude Chinle Formation and a clear biogeographic connection with high paleolatitude Pangea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily J Lessner
- Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA, United States; Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA, United States
| | - Michelle R Stocker
- Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) , Blacksburg, VA , United States
| | - Nathan D Smith
- The Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County , Los Angeles, CA , United States
| | - Alan H Turner
- Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University , Stony Brook, NY , United States
| | - Randall B Irmis
- Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Sterling J Nesbitt
- Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) , Blacksburg, VA , United States
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21
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De Baets K, Antonelli A, Donoghue PCJ. Tectonic blocks and molecular clocks. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2016; 371:20160098. [PMID: 27325840 PMCID: PMC4920344 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/19/2016] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Evolutionary timescales have mainly used fossils for calibrating molecular clocks, though fossils only really provide minimum clade age constraints. In their place, phylogenetic trees can be calibrated by precisely dated geological events that have shaped biogeography. However, tectonic episodes are protracted, their role in vicariance is rarely justified, the biogeography of living clades and their antecedents may differ, and the impact of such events is contingent on ecology. Biogeographic calibrations are no panacea for the shortcomings of fossil calibrations, but their associated uncertainties can be accommodated. We provide examples of how biogeographic calibrations based on geological data can be established for the fragmentation of the Pangaean supercontinent: (i) for the uplift of the Isthmus of Panama, (ii) the separation of New Zealand from Gondwana, and (iii) for the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Biogeographic and fossil calibrations are complementary, not competing, approaches to constraining molecular clock analyses, providing alternative constraints on the age of clades that are vital to avoiding circularity in investigating the role of biogeographic mechanisms in shaping modern biodiversity.This article is part of the themed issue 'Dating species divergences using rocks and clocks'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth De Baets
- School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Fachgruppe PaläoUmwelt, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Loewenichstr. 28, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
| | - Alexandre Antonelli
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Box 461, 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden Gothenburg Botanical Garden, Carl Skottsbergs gata 22A, 413 19 Göteborg, Sweden
| | - Philip C J Donoghue
- School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
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22
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Drymala SM, Zanno LE. Osteology of Carnufex carolinensis (Archosauria: Psuedosuchia) from the Pekin Formation of North Carolina and Its Implications for Early Crocodylomorph Evolution. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0157528. [PMID: 27304665 PMCID: PMC4909254 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2015] [Accepted: 06/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Crocodylomorphs originated in the Late Triassic and were the only crocodile-line archosaurs to survive the end-Triassic extinction. Recent phylogenetic analyses suggest that the closest relatives of these generally gracile, small-bodied taxa were a group of robust, large-bodied predators known as rauisuchids implying a problematic morphological gap between early crocodylomorphs and their closest relatives. Here we provide a detailed osteological description of the recently named early diverging crocodylomorph Carnufex carolinensis from the Upper Triassic Pekin Formation of North Carolina and assess its phylogenetic position within the Paracrocodylomorpha. Carnufex displays a mosaic of crocodylomorph, rauisuchid, and dinosaurian characters, as well as highly laminar cranial elements and vertebrae, ornamented dermal skull bones, a large, subtriangular antorbital fenestra, and a reduced forelimb. A phylogenetic analysis utilizing a comprehensive dataset of early paracrocodylomorphs and including seven new characters and numerous modifications to characters culled from the literature recovers Carnufex carolinensis as one of the most basal members of Crocodylomorpha, in a polytomy with two other large bodied taxa (CM 73372 and Redondavenator). The analysis also resulted in increased resolution within Crocodylomorpha and a monophyletic clade containing the holotype and two referred specimens of Hesperosuchus as well as Dromicosuchus. Carnufex occupies a key transition at the origin of Crocodylomorpha, indicating that the morphology typifying early crocodylomorphs appeared before the shift to small body size.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan M. Drymala
- Research & Collections, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Lindsay E. Zanno
- Research & Collections, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
- Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
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23
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24
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Geographic range did not confer resilience to extinction in terrestrial vertebrates at the end-Triassic crisis. Nat Commun 2015; 6:7980. [PMID: 26261053 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2015] [Accepted: 07/03/2015] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Rates of extinction vary greatly through geological time, with losses particularly concentrated in mass extinctions. Species duration at other times varies greatly, but the reasons for this are unclear. Geographical range correlates with lineage duration amongst marine invertebrates, but it is less clear how far this generality extends to other groups in other habitats. It is also unclear whether a wide geographical distribution makes groups more likely to survive mass extinctions. Here we test for extinction selectivity amongst terrestrial vertebrates across the end-Triassic event. We demonstrate that terrestrial vertebrate clades with larger geographical ranges were more resilient to extinction than those with smaller ranges throughout the Triassic and Jurassic. However, this relationship weakened with increasing proximity to the end-Triassic mass extinction, breaking down altogether across the event itself. We demonstrate that these findings are not a function of sampling biases; a perennial issue in studies of this kind.
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25
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Extreme ecosystem instability suppressed tropical dinosaur dominance for 30 million years. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2015; 112:7909-13. [PMID: 26080428 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1505252112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
A major unresolved aspect of the rise of dinosaurs is why early dinosaurs and their relatives were rare and species-poor at low paleolatitudes throughout the Late Triassic Period, a pattern persisting 30 million years after their origin and 10-15 million years after they became abundant and speciose at higher latitudes. New palynological, wildfire, organic carbon isotope, and atmospheric pCO2 data from early dinosaur-bearing strata of low paleolatitudes in western North America show that large, high-frequency, tightly correlated variations in δ(13)Corg and palynomorph ecotypes occurred within a context of elevated and increasing pCO2 and pervasive wildfires. Whereas pseudosuchian archosaur-dominated communities were able to persist in these same regions under rapidly fluctuating extreme climatic conditions until the end-Triassic, large-bodied, fast-growing tachymetabolic dinosaurian herbivores requiring greater resources were unable to adapt to unstable high CO2 environmental conditions of the Late Triassic.
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26
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Early crocodylomorph increases top tier predator diversity during rise of dinosaurs. Sci Rep 2015; 5:9276. [PMID: 25787306 PMCID: PMC4365386 DOI: 10.1038/srep09276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2014] [Accepted: 02/16/2015] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Triassic predatory guild evolution reflects a period of ecological flux spurred by the catastrophic end-Permian mass extinction and terminating with the global ecological dominance of dinosaurs in the early Jurassic. In responding to this dynamic ecospace, terrestrial predator diversity attained new levels, prompting unique trophic webs with a seeming overabundance of carnivorous taxa and the evolution of entirely new predatory clades. Key among these was Crocodylomorpha, the largest living reptiles and only one of two archosaurian lineages that survive to the present day. In contrast to their existing role as top, semi-aquatic predators, the earliest crocodylomorphs were generally small-bodied, terrestrial faunivores, occupying subsidiary (meso) predator roles. Here we describe Carnufexcarolinensis a new, unexpectedly large-bodied taxon with a slender and ornamented skull from the Carnian Pekin Formation (~231 Ma), representing one of the oldest and earliest diverging crocodylomorphs described to date. Carnufex bridges a problematic gap in the early evolution of pseudosuchians by spanning key transitions in bauplan evolution and body mass near the origin of Crocodylomorpha. With a skull length of >50 cm, the new taxon documents a rare instance of crocodylomorphs ascending to top-tier predator guilds in the equatorial regions of Pangea prior to the dominance of dinosaurs.
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27
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Murienne J, Daniels SR, Buckley TR, Mayer G, Giribet G. A living fossil tale of Pangaean biogeography. Proc Biol Sci 2014; 281:20132648. [PMID: 24285200 PMCID: PMC3866409 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.2648] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2013] [Accepted: 10/31/2013] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The current distributions of widespread groups of terrestrial animals and plants are supposedly the result of a mixture of either vicariance owing to continental split or more recent trans-oceanic dispersal. For organisms exhibiting a vicariant biogeographic pattern-achieving their current distribution by riding on the plates of former supercontinents-this view is largely inspired by the belief that Pangaea lacked geographical or ecological barriers, or that extinctions and dispersal would have erased any biogeographic signal since the early Mesozoic. We here present a time-calibrated molecular phylogeny of Onychophora (velvet worms), an ancient and exclusively terrestrial panarthropod group distributed throughout former Pangaean landmasses. Our data not only demonstrate that trans-oceanic dispersal does not need be invoked to explain contemporary distributions, but also reveal that the early diversification of the group pre-dates the break-up of Pangaea, maintaining regionalization even in landmasses that have remained contiguous throughout the history of the group. These results corroborate a growing body of evidence from palaeontology, palaeogeography and palaeoclimatic modelling depicting ancient biogeographic regionalization over the continuous landmass of Pangaea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jerome Murienne
- Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, ENFA, UMR 5174 EDB (Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique), Université de Toulouse, 118 route de Narbonne, Toulouse 31062, France
| | - Savel R. Daniels
- Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Department of Botany and Zoology, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa
| | - Thomas R. Buckley
- Landcare Research, Auckland Mail Centre, Private Bag 92170, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Georg Mayer
- Animal Evolution and Development, Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, Talstraße 33, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Gonzalo Giribet
- Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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Abstract
AbstractNon-crocodyliform crocodylomorphs, often called ‘sphenosuchians’, were the earliest-diverging lineages of Crocodylomorpha, and document the stepwise acquisition of many of the features that characterize extant crocodylians. The first crocodylomorph fossils are approximately 230 million years old (upper Carnian, Late Triassic), and at least one of these early lineages persisted until at least 150 million years ago (Late Jurassic). These taxa occupied a wide variety of terrestrial environments from equatorial regions to high-paleolatitudes during the early Mesozoic. Despite a quarter-century of quantitative phylogenetic work, the interrelationships of early crocodylomorphs remain in a state of flux, though recent studies suggest that these lineages are paraphyletic with respect to Crocodyliformes, rather than forming a monophyletic early offshoot of Crocodylomorpha as some previously hypothesized. Nearly all early crocodylomorphs were upright quadrupedal small-bodied taxa, but lumping them all together as small cursorial faunivores masks ecological and morphological disparity in diet and limb functional morphology. With the accelerated pace of recent discovery of new specimens and taxa, future consensus on early crocodylomorph phylogeny will provide a solid framework for understanding their change in diversity and disparity through time, potential biogeographic patterns, and the morphological transformation leading to Crocodyliformes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Randall B. Irmis
- Natural History Museum of Utah, 301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108-1214, USA
- Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0102, USA
| | - Sterling J. Nesbitt
- Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1800, USA
- Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA
| | - Hans-Dieter Sues
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, NHB MRC 121, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
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Kammerer CF, Fröbisch J, Angielczyk KD. On the validity and phylogenetic position of Eubrachiosaurus browni, a kannemeyeriiform dicynodont (Anomodontia) from Triassic North America. PLoS One 2013; 8:e64203. [PMID: 23741307 PMCID: PMC3669350 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2013] [Accepted: 04/11/2013] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The large dicynodont Eubrachiosaurus browni from the Upper Triassic Popo Agie Formation of Wyoming is redescribed. Eubrachiosaurus is a valid taxon that differs from Placerias hesternus, with which it was previously synonymized, by greater anteroposterior expansion of the scapula dorsally and a very large, nearly rectangular humeral ectepicondyle with a broad supinator process. Inclusion of Eubrachiosaurus in a revised phylogenetic analysis of anomodont therapsids indicates that it is a stahleckeriid closely related to the South American genera Ischigualastia and Jachaleria. The recognition of Eubrachiosaurus as a distinct lineage of North American dicynodonts, combined with other recent discoveries in the eastern USA and Europe, alters our perception of Late Triassic dicynodont diversity in the northern hemisphere. Rather than being isolated relicts in previously therapsid-dominated regions, Late Triassic stahleckeriid dicynodonts were continuing to disperse and diversify, even in areas like western North America that were otherwise uninhabited by coeval therapsids (i.e., cynodonts).
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian F Kammerer
- Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity, Berlin, Germany.
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30
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Kammerer CF, Flynn JJ, Ranivoharimanana L, Wyss AR. Ontogeny in the Malagasy Traversodontid Dadadon isaloi and a Reconsideration of its Phylogenetic Relationships. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2012. [DOI: 10.3158/2158-5520-5.1.112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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31
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Ricklefs RE, Renner SS. Response to Comments on “Global Correlations in Tropical Tree Species Richness and Abundance Reject Neutrality”. Science 2012. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1222685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
The neutral models in the Technical Comments depend on the assumption of an initially homogeneous global tropical forest flora. Fossil data and phylogenetic reconstructions instead reveal a high degree of provincialism before the development of modern tropical forests with only occasional long-distance dispersal between continental regions, favoring parallel diversification of a small number of ancestral lineages that dispersed between regions at widely different times.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert E. Ricklefs
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri–St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63121–4499, USA
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Abstract
Most extant genus-level radiations in gymnosperms are of Oligocene age or younger, reflecting widespread extinction during climate cooling at the Oligocene/Miocene boundary [∼23 million years ago (Ma)]. Recent biogeographic studies have revealed many instances of long-distance dispersal in gymnosperms as well as in angiosperms. Acting together, extinction and long-distance dispersal are likely to erase historical biogeographic signals. Notwithstanding this problem, we show that phylogenetic relationships in the gymnosperm family Cupressaceae (162 species, 32 genera) exhibit patterns expected from the Jurassic/Cretaceous breakup of Pangea. A phylogeny was generated for 122 representatives covering all genera, using up to 10,000 nucleotides of plastid, mitochondrial, and nuclear sequence per species. Relying on 16 fossil calibration points and three molecular dating methods, we show that Cupressaceae originated during the Triassic, when Pangea was intact. Vicariance between the two subfamilies, the Laurasian Cupressoideae and the Gondwanan Callitroideae, occurred around 153 Ma (124-183 Ma), when Gondwana and Laurasia were separating. Three further intercontinental disjunctions involving the Northern and Southern Hemisphere are coincidental with or immediately followed the breakup of Pangea.
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Abstract
In this article, the pattern learned from the classic or conventional rotating circular genetic code is transferred to a 64-grid model. In this non-static representation, the codons for the same amino acid within each quadrant could be exchanged, wobbling or rotating in a quantic way similar to the electrons within an atomic orbit. Represented in this 64-grid format are the three rules of variation encompassing 4, 2, or 1 quadrant, respectively: 1) same position in four quadrants for the essential hydrophobic amino acids that have U at the center, 2) same or contiguous position for the same or related amino acids in two quadrants, and 3) equivalent amino acids within one quadrant. Also represented is the mathematical balance of the odd and even codons, and the most used codons per amino acid in humans compared to one diametrically opposed organism: the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, a comparison that depicts the difference in third nucleotide preferences: a C/U exchange for 11 amino acids, a G/A exchange for 2 amino acids, and G/U or C/A exchanges for one amino acid, respectively; by studying these codon usage preferences per amino acid we present our two hypotheses: 1) A slower translation in vertebrates and 2) a faster translation in invertebrates, possibly due to the aqueous environments where they live. These codon usage preferences may also be able to determine genomic compatibility by comparing individual mRNAs and their functional third dimensional structure, transport and translation within cells and organisms. These observations are aimed to the design of bioinformatics computational tools to compare human genomes and to determine the exchange between compatible codons and amino acids, to preserve and/or to bring back extinct biodiversity, and for the early detection of incompatible changes that lead to genetic diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernando Castro-Chavez
- Department of Medicine, Atherosclerosis and Vascular Medicine Section, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
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