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Saunders TC, Larridon I, Baker WJ, Barrett RL, Forest F, Françoso E, Maurin O, Rokni S, Roalson EH. Tangled webs and spider-flowers: Phylogenomics, biogeography, and seed morphology inform the evolutionary history of Cleomaceae. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 2024:e16399. [PMID: 39206557 DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.16399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2024] [Revised: 06/07/2024] [Accepted: 06/09/2024] [Indexed: 09/04/2024]
Abstract
PREMISE Cleomaceae is an important model clade for studies of evolutionary processes including genome evolution, floral form diversification, and photosynthetic pathway evolution. Diversification and divergence patterns in Cleomaceae remain tangled as research has been restricted by its worldwide distribution, limited genetic sampling and species coverage, and a lack of definitive fossil calibration points. METHODS We used target sequence capture and the Angiosperms353 probe set to perform a phylogenetic study of Cleomaceae. We estimated divergence times and biogeographic analyses to explore the origin and diversification of the family. Seed morphology across extant taxa was documented with multifocal image-stacking techniques and morphological characters were extracted, analyzed, and compared to fossil records. RESULTS We recovered a well-supported and resolved phylogenetic tree of Cleomaceae generic relationships that includes 236 (~86%) species. We identified 11 principal clades and confidently placed Cleomella as sister to the rest of the family. Our analyses suggested that Cleomaceae and Brassicaceae diverged ~56 mya, and Cleomaceae began to diversify ~53 mya in the Palearctic and Africa. Multiple transatlantic disjunct distributions were identified. Seeds were imaged from 218 (~80%) species in the family and compared to all known fossil species. CONCLUSIONS Our results represent the most comprehensive phylogenetic study of Cleomaceae to date. We identified transatlantic disjunctions and proposed explanations for these patterns, most likely either long-distance dispersals or contractions in latitudinal distributions caused by climate change over geological timescales. We found that seed morphology varied considerably but mostly mirrored generic relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theresa C Saunders
- School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, 99164-4236, USA
| | | | | | - Russell L Barrett
- National Herbarium of New South Wales, Botanic Gardens of Sydney, Australian Botanic Garden, Locked Bag 6002, Mount Annan, 2567, New South Wales, Australia
- Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Félix Forest
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, UK
| | - Elaine Françoso
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, UK
- Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, Department of Biological Sciences, School of Life Sciences and the Environment, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK
| | - Olivier Maurin
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, UK
| | - Saba Rokni
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, UK
| | - Eric H Roalson
- School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, 99164-4236, USA
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Capobianco A, Friedman M. Fossils indicate marine dispersal in osteoglossid fishes, a classic example of continental vicariance. Proc Biol Sci 2024; 291:20241293. [PMID: 39137888 PMCID: PMC11321865 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.1293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2024] [Revised: 07/02/2024] [Accepted: 07/02/2024] [Indexed: 08/15/2024] Open
Abstract
The separation of closely related terrestrial or freshwater species by vast marine barriers represents a biogeographical riddle. Such cases can provide evidence for vicariance, a process whereby ancient geological events like continental rifting divided ancestral geographical ranges. With an evolutionary history extending tens of millions of years, freshwater ecology, and distribution encompassing widely separated southern landmasses, osteoglossid bonytongue fishes are a textbook case of vicariance attributed to Mesozoic fragmentation of the Gondwanan supercontinent. Largely overlooked fossils complicate the clean narrative invoked for extant species by recording occurrences on additional continents and in marine settings. Here, we present a new total-evidence phylogenetic hypothesis for bonytongue fishes combined with quantitative models of range evolution and show that the last common ancestor of extant osteoglossids was likely marine, and that the group colonized freshwater settings at least four times when both extant and extinct lineages are considered. The correspondence between extant osteoglossid relationships and patterns of continental fragmentation therefore represents a striking example of biogeographical pseudocongruence. Contrary to arguments against vicariance hypotheses that rely only on temporal or phylogenetic evidence, these results provide direct palaeontological support for enhanced dispersal ability early in the history of a group with widely separated distributions in the modern day.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessio Capobianco
- GeoBio-Center LMU, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Palaeontology & Geobiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Matt Friedman
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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3
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Pol D, Baiano MA, Černý D, Novas FE, Cerda IA, Pittman M. A new abelisaurid dinosaur from the end Cretaceous of Patagonia and evolutionary rates among the Ceratosauria. Cladistics 2024; 40:307-356. [PMID: 38771085 DOI: 10.1111/cla.12583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2024] [Revised: 04/24/2024] [Accepted: 04/24/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Gondwanan dinosaur faunae during the 20 Myr preceding the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K/Pg) extinction included several lineages that were absent or poorly represented in Laurasian landmasses. Among these, the South American fossil record contains diverse abelisaurids, arguably the most successful groups of carnivorous dinosaurs from Gondwana in the Cretaceous, reaching their highest diversity towards the end of this period. Here we describe Koleken inakayali gen. et sp. n., a new abelisaurid from the La Colonia Formation (Maastrichtian, Upper Cretaceous) of Patagonia. Koleken inakayali is known from several skull bones, an almost complete dorsal series, complete sacrum, several caudal vertebrae, pelvic girdle and almost complete hind limbs. The new abelisaurid shows a unique set of features in the skull and several anatomical differences from Carnotaurus sastrei (the only other abelisaurid known from the La Colonia Formation). Koleken inakayali is retrieved as a brachyrostran abelisaurid, clustered with other South American abelisaurids from the latest Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian), such as Aucasaurus, Niebla and Carnotaurus. Leveraging our phylogeny estimates, we explore rates of morphological evolution across ceratosaurian lineages, finding them to be particularly high for elaphrosaurine noasaurids and around the base of Abelisauridae, before the Early Cretaceous radiation of the latter clade. The Noasauridae and their sister clade show contrasting patterns of morphological evolution, with noasaurids undergoing an early phase of accelerated evolution of the axial and hind limb skeleton in the Jurassic, and the abelisaurids exhibiting sustained high rates of cranial evolution during the Early Cretaceous. These results provide much needed context for the evolutionary dynamics of ceratosaurian theropods, contributing to broader understanding of macroevolutionary patterns across dinosaurs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diego Pol
- Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Mattia Antonio Baiano
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
- School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Área Laboratorio e Investigación, Museo Municipal Ernesto Bachmann, Villa El Chocón, Neuquén, Argentina
- Universidad Nacional de Río Negro (UNRN), General Roca, Río Negro, Argentina
| | - David Černý
- Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Fernando E Novas
- Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Ignacio A Cerda
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Universidad Nacional de Río Negro (UNRN), General Roca, Río Negro, Argentina
- Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología (IIPG), General Roca, Río Negro, Argentina
- Museo Provincial Carlos Ameghino, Cipolletti, Río Negro, Argentina
| | - Michael Pittman
- School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China
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Coiro M, Allio R, Mazet N, Seyfullah LJ, Condamine FL. Reconciling fossils with phylogenies reveals the origin and macroevolutionary processes explaining the global cycad biodiversity. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2023; 240:1616-1635. [PMID: 37302411 PMCID: PMC10953041 DOI: 10.1111/nph.19010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2022] [Accepted: 05/01/2023] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The determinants of biodiversity patterns can be understood using macroevolutionary analyses. The integration of fossils into phylogenies offers a deeper understanding of processes underlying biodiversity patterns in deep time. Cycadales are considered a relict of a once more diverse and globally distributed group but are restricted to low latitudes today. We still know little about their origin and geographic range evolution. Combining molecular data for extant species and leaf morphological data for extant and fossil species, we study the origin of cycad global biodiversity patterns through Bayesian total-evidence dating analyses. We assess the ancestral geographic origin and trace the historical biogeography of cycads with a time-stratified process-based model. Cycads originated in the Carboniferous on the Laurasian landmass and expanded in Gondwana in the Jurassic. Through now-vanished continental connections, Antarctica and Greenland were crucial biogeographic crossroads for cycad biogeography. Vicariance is an essential speciation mode in the deep and recent past. Their latitudinal span increased in the Jurassic and restrained toward subtropical latitudes in the Neogene in line with biogeographic inferences of high-latitude extirpations. We show the benefits of integrating fossils into phylogenies to estimate ancestral areas of origin and to study evolutionary processes explaining the global distribution of present-day relict groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mario Coiro
- Department of PalaeontologyUniversity of Vienna1090ViennaAustria
- Ronin Institute for Independent ScholarshipMontclairNJ07043USA
| | - Rémi Allio
- Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations, INRAE, CIRAD, IRD, Montpellier SupAgroUniversité de Montpellier34988MontpellierFrance
| | - Nathan Mazet
- CNRS, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, Université de MontpellierPlace Eugène Bataillon34095MontpellierFrance
| | | | - Fabien L. Condamine
- CNRS, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, Université de MontpellierPlace Eugène Bataillon34095MontpellierFrance
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Alarcón-Muñoz J, Vargas AO, Püschel HP, Soto-Acuña S, Manríquez L, Leppe M, Kaluza J, Milla V, Gutstein CS, Palma-Liberona J, Stinnesbeck W, Frey E, Pino JP, Bajor D, Núñez E, Ortiz H, Rubilar-Rogers D, Cruzado-Caballero P. Relict duck-billed dinosaurs survived into the last age of the dinosaurs in subantarctic Chile. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadg2456. [PMID: 37327335 PMCID: PMC10275600 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg2456] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 05/11/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
In the dusk of the Mesozoic, advanced duck-billed dinosaurs (Hadrosauridae) were so successful that they likely outcompeted other herbivores, contributing to declines in dinosaur diversity. From Laurasia, hadrosaurids dispersed widely, colonizing Africa, South America, and, allegedly, Antarctica. Here, we present the first species of a duck-billed dinosaur from a subantarctic region, Gonkoken nanoi, of early Maastrichtian age in Magallanes, Chile. Unlike duckbills further north in Patagonia, Gonkoken descends from North American forms diverging shortly before the origin of Hadrosauridae. However, at the time, non-hadrosaurids in North America had become replaced by hadrosaurids. We propose that the ancestors of Gonkoken arrived earlier in South America and reached further south, into regions where hadrosaurids never arrived: All alleged subantarctic and Antarctic remains of hadrosaurids could belong to non-hadrosaurid duckbills like Gonkoken. Dinosaur faunas of the world underwent qualitatively different changes before the Cretaceous-Paleogene asteroid impact, which should be considered when discussing their possible vulnerability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jhonatan Alarcón-Muñoz
- Red Paleontológica U-Chile, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Área Paleontología, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Alexander O. Vargas
- Red Paleontológica U-Chile, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Hans P. Püschel
- Red Paleontológica U-Chile, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Sergio Soto-Acuña
- Red Paleontológica U-Chile, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- KayTreng Consultores SpA, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
- Escuela de Geología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Mayor, Manuel Montt 367, Providencia, Santiago, Chile
| | | | - Marcelo Leppe
- Laboratorio de Paleobiología, Instituto Nacional Antártico Chileno, Punta Arenas, Chile
| | - Jonatan Kaluza
- Fundación Félix de Azara, Argentina, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Verónica Milla
- Red Paleontológica U-Chile, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile
| | - Carolina S. Gutstein
- Red Paleontológica U-Chile, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Paleo Consultores, Pedro de Valdivia 273, Providencia 1602, Chile
| | - José Palma-Liberona
- Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Wolfgang Stinnesbeck
- Institut für Geowissenschaften, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 234-236, Heidelberg 69120, Germany
| | - Eberhard Frey
- Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe (SMNK), Erbprinzenstraße 13, Karlsruhe 76133, Germany
| | - Juan Pablo Pino
- Red Paleontológica U-Chile, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Dániel Bajor
- Red Paleontológica U-Chile, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Elaine Núñez
- Red Paleontológica U-Chile, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Héctor Ortiz
- Red Paleontológica U-Chile, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile
| | - David Rubilar-Rogers
- Área Paleontología, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Penélope Cruzado-Caballero
- Área de Paleontología, Departamento de Biología Animal, Edafología y Geología, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
- Grupo Aragosaurus-IUCA, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
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Hansen AK, Brunke AJ, Thomsen PF, Simonsen TJ, Solodovnikov A. Formation of the Holarctic Fauna: Dated molecular phylogenetic and biogeographic insights from the Quedius-lineage of Ground-Dwelling Rove Beetles (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae). Mol Phylogenet Evol 2023; 182:107749. [PMID: 36878419 DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107749] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2023] [Revised: 02/24/2023] [Accepted: 02/25/2023] [Indexed: 03/07/2023]
Abstract
Although the Holarctic fauna has been explored for centuries, many questions on its formation are still unanswered. For example, i) what was the impact of the uplift of the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau?, ii) what were the timings and climate of the faunal bridges connecting the Nearctic and Palearctic regions?, and iii) how did insect lineages respond to the late Paleogene global cooling and regional aridification? To answer these, we developed a phylogenetic dataset of 1229 nuclear loci for a total of 222 species of rove beetles (Staphylinidae) with emphasis in the tribe Quediini, especially Quedius-lineage and its subclade Quedius sensu stricto. Using eight fossils for calibrating molecular clock, we estimated divergence times and then analysed in BioGeoBEARS paleodistributions of the most recent common ancestor for each target lineage. For each species we generated climatic envelopes of the temperature and precipitation and mapped them across the phylogeny to explore evolutionary shifts. Our results suggest that the warm and humid Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau acted as an evolutionary cradle for the Quedius-lineage originating during the Oligocene from where, in the Early Miocene, the ancestor of the Quedius s. str. dispersed into the West Palearctic. With the climate cooling from the Mid Miocene onwards, new lineages within Quedius s. str. emerged and gradually expanded distributions across the Palearctic. In Late Miocene, a member of the group dispersed to the Nearctic region via Beringia before the closure of this land bridge 5.3 Ma. Paleogene global cooling and regional aridification largely shaped the current biogeographic pattern for Quedius s. str. species, many of them originating during the Pliocene and shifting or contracting their ranges during Pleistocene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aslak Kappel Hansen
- Natural History Museum of Denmark, Zoological Museum, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark; Natural History Museum Aarhus, Wilhelm Meyers Allé 10, DK-8000 Aarhus, Denmark; Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 116, DK-8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Adam J Brunke
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C6, Canada
| | | | - Thomas J Simonsen
- Natural History Museum Aarhus, Wilhelm Meyers Allé 10, DK-8000 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Alexey Solodovnikov
- Natural History Museum of Denmark, Zoological Museum, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
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Pedro Selvatti A, Romero Rebello Moreira F, Cardoso de Carvalho D, Prosdocimi F, Augusta de Moraes Russo C, Carolina Martins Junqueira A. Phylogenomics reconciles molecular data with the rich fossil record on the origin of living turtles. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2023; 183:107773. [PMID: 36977459 DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107773] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2022] [Revised: 02/07/2023] [Accepted: 03/21/2023] [Indexed: 03/28/2023]
Abstract
Although a consensus exists that all living turtles fall within either Pleurodira or Cryptodira clades, estimating when these lineages split is still under debate. Most molecular studies date the split in the Triassic Period, whereas a Jurassic age is unanimous among morphological studies. Each hypothesis implies different paleobiogeographical scenarios to explain early turtle evolution. Here we explored the rich turtle fossil record with the Fossilized Birth-Death (FBD) and the traditional node dating (ND) methods using complete mitochondrial genomes (147 taxa) and a set of nuclear orthologs with over 10 million bp (25 taxa) to date the major splits in Testudines. Our results support an Early Jurassic split (191-182 Ma) for the crown Testudines with great consistency across different dating methods and datasets, with a narrow confidence interval. This result is independently supported by the oldest fossils of Testudines that postdate the Middle Jurassic (174 Ma), which were not used for calibration in this study. This age coincides with the Pangaea fragmentation and the formation of saltwater barriers such as the Atlantic Ocean and the Turgai Strait, supporting that diversification in Testudines was triggered by vicariance. Our ages of the splits in Pleurodira coincide with the geologic events of the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Conversely, the early Cryptodira radiation remained in Laurasia, and its diversification ensued as all its major lineages expanded their distribution into every continent during the Cenozoic. We provide the first detailed hypothesis of the evolution of Cryptodira in the Southern Hemisphere, in which our time estimates are correlated with each contact between landmasses derived from Gondwana and Laurasia. Although most South American Cryptodira arrived through the Great American Biotic Interchange, our results indicate that the Chelonoidis ancestor probably arrived from Africa through the chain islands of the South Atlantic during the Paleogene. Together, the presence of ancient turtle diversity and the vital role that turtles occupy in marine and terrestrial ecosystems underline South America as a chief area for conservation.
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Du ZY, Jenny Xiang QY, Cheng J, Zhou W, Wang QF, Soltis DE, Soltis PS. An updated phylogeny, biogeography, and PhyloCode-based classification of Cornaceae based on three sets of genomic data. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 2023; 110:e16116. [PMID: 36480351 DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.16116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Revised: 11/29/2022] [Accepted: 11/29/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
PREMISE A major goal of systematic biology is to uncover the evolutionary history of organisms and translate that knowledge into stable classification systems. Here, we integrate three sets of genome-wide data to resolve phylogenetic relationships in Cornaceae (containing only Cornus s.l.), reconstruct the biogeographic history of the clade, and provide a revised classification using the PhyloCode to stabilize names for this taxonomically controversial group. METHODS We conducted phylogenetic analyses using 312 single-copy nuclear genes and 70 plastid genes from Angiosperms353 Hyb-Seq, plus numerous loci from RAD-Seq. We integrated fossils using morphological data and produced a dated phylogeny for biogeographical analysis. RESULTS A well-resolved, strongly supported, comprehensive phylogeny was obtained. Biogeographic analyses support an origin and rapid diversification of Cornus into four morphologically distinct major clades in the Northern Hemisphere (with an eastern Asian ancestor) during the late Cretaceous. Dispersal into Africa from eastern Asia likely occurred along the Tethys Seaway during the Paleogene, whereas dispersal into South America likely occurred during the Neogene. Diversification within the northern hemisphere likely involved repeated independent colonization of new areas during the Paleogene and Neogene along the Bering Land Bridge, the North Atlantic Land Bridge, and the Tethys Seaway. Thirteen strongly supported clades were named following rules of the PhyloCode. CONCLUSIONS Our study provides an example of integrating genomic and morphological data to produce a robust, explicit species phylogeny that includes fossil taxa, which we translate into an updated classification scheme using the PhyloCode to stabilize names.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhi-Yuan Du
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA
- Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Qiu-Yun Jenny Xiang
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA
| | - Jin Cheng
- College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China
| | - Wenbin Zhou
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA
| | - Qing-Feng Wang
- Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Douglas E Soltis
- Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611 FL, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611 FL, USA
| | - Pamela S Soltis
- Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611 FL, USA
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9
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Did some extinct South American native ungulates arise from an afrothere ancestor? A critical appraisal of Avilla and Mothé’s (2021) Sudamericungulata – Panameridiungulata hypothesis. J MAMM EVOL 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s10914-022-09633-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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10
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A titanosaurian sauropod with Gondwanan affinities in the latest Cretaceous of Europe. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:288-296. [PMID: 35132183 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01651-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2021] [Accepted: 12/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The origin of the last sauropod dinosaur communities in Europe and their evolution during the final 15 million years of the Cretaceous have become a complex phylogenetic and palaeobiogeographic puzzle characterized by the controversy on the alleged coexistence of immigrant, Gondwana-related taxa alongside relictual and insular clades. In this context, we describe a new titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur, Abditosaurus kuehnei gen. et sp. nov., from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Tremp Group of Catalonia (Spain). Phylogenetic analyses recover Abditosaurus separately from other European titanosaurs, within a clade of otherwise South American and African saltasaurines. The affinity of the new taxon with southern landmasses is reinforced by spatiotemporal co-occurrence with Gondwanan titanosaurian oospecies in southern Europe. The large size and the lack of osteohistological features potentially related to insular dwarfism or size reduction support the idea that Abditosaurus belongs to an immigrant lineage, unequivocally distinct from some of the island dwarfs of the European archipelago. The arrival of the Abditosaurus lineage to the Ibero-Armorican Island is hypothesized to have occurred during the earliest Maastrichtian (70.6 Ma), probably as a result of a global and regional sea-level drop that reactivated ancient dispersal routes between Africa and Europe. The arrival of large-bodied titanosaurs to the European archipelago produced dramatic changes in its insular ecosystems and important evolutionary changes in its dinosaur faunas, especially with respect to the 'island rule' effect.
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Chiarenza AA, Mannion PD, Farnsworth A, Carrano MT, Varela S. Climatic constraints on the biogeographic history of Mesozoic dinosaurs. Curr Biol 2021; 32:570-585.e3. [PMID: 34921764 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.11.061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Revised: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Dinosaurs dominated Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems globally. However, whereas a pole-to-pole geographic distribution characterized ornithischians and theropods, sauropods were restricted to lower latitudes. Here, we evaluate the role of climate in shaping these biogeographic patterns through the Jurassic-Cretaceous (201-66 mya), combining dinosaur fossil occurrences, past climate data from Earth System models, and habitat suitability modeling. Results show that, uniquely among dinosaurs, sauropods occupied climatic niches characterized by high temperatures and strongly bounded by minimum cold temperatures. This constrained the distribution and dispersal pathways of sauropods to tropical areas, excluding them from latitudinal extremes, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. The greater availability of suitable habitat in the southern continents, particularly in the Late Cretaceous, might be key to explaining the high diversity of sauropods there, relative to northern landmasses. Given that ornithischians and theropods show a flattened or bimodal latitudinal biodiversity gradient, with peaks at higher latitudes, the closer correspondence of sauropods to a subtropical concentration could hint at fundamental thermophysiological differences to the other two clades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza
- Grupo de Ecología Animal, Centro de Investigacion Mariña, Universidade de Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Marcosende, Vigo 36310, Spain; Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BP, UK; Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
| | - Philip D Mannion
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
| | - Alex Farnsworth
- School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol BS8 1RL, UK; State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Matthew T Carrano
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 121, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.
| | - Sara Varela
- Grupo de Ecología Animal, Centro de Investigacion Mariña, Universidade de Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Marcosende, Vigo 36310, Spain
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12
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Jiang Y, Yue L, Yang F, Gillung JP, Winterton SL, Price BW, Contreras-Ramos A, Hayashi F, Aspöck U, Aspöck H, Yeates DK, Yang D, Liu X. Similar pattern, different paths: tracing the biogeographical history of Megaloptera (Insecta: Neuropterida) using mitochondrial phylogenomics. Cladistics 2021; 38:374-391. [PMID: 34818432 DOI: 10.1111/cla.12494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The sequential breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea since the Middle Jurassic is one of the crucial factors that has driven the biogeographical patterns of terrestrial biotas. Despite decades of effort searching for concordant patterns between diversification and continental fragmentation among taxonomic groups, increasing evidence has revealed more complex and idiosyncratic scenarios resulting from a mixture of vicariance, dispersal and extinction. Aquatic insects with discreet ecological requirements, low vagility and disjunct distributions represent a valuable model for testing biogeographical hypotheses by reconstructing their distribution patterns and temporal divergences. Insects of the order Megaloptera have exclusively aquatic larvae, their adults have low vagility, and the group has a highly disjunct geographical distribution. Here we present a comprehensive phylogeny of Megaloptera based on a large-scale mitochondrial genome sequencing of 99 species representing >90% of the world genera from all major biogeographical regions. Molecular dating suggests that the deep divergence within Megaloptera pre-dates the breakup of Pangaea. Subsequently, the intergeneric divergences within Corydalinae (dobsonflies), Chauliodinae (fishflies) and Sialidae (alderflies) might have been driven by both vicariance and dispersal correlated with the shifting continent during the Cretaceous, but with strikingly different and incongruent biogeographical signals. The austral distribution of many corydalids appears to be a result of colonization from Eurasia through southward dispersal across Europe and Africa during the Cretaceous, whereas a nearly contemporaneous dispersal via northward rafting of Gondwanan landmasses may account for the colonization of extant Eurasian alderflies from the south.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunlan Jiang
- Department of Entomology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Lu Yue
- Department of Entomology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Fan Yang
- Department of Entomology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.,Beijing Customs, Beijing, China
| | - Jessica P Gillung
- California Department of Food and Agriculture, California State Collection of Arthropods, 3294 Meadowview Rd, Sacramento, CA, USA.,Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Canada
| | - Shaun L Winterton
- California Department of Food and Agriculture, California State Collection of Arthropods, 3294 Meadowview Rd, Sacramento, CA, USA
| | | | - Atilano Contreras-Ramos
- Departamento de Zoología, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Fumio Hayashi
- Department of Biology, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Ulrike Aspöck
- Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum Vienna, Burgring 7, Vienna, A-1010, Austria.,Department of Integrative Zoology, University of Vienna, Althanstraße 14, Vienna, 1090, Austria
| | - Horst Aspöck
- Institute of Specific Prophylaxis and Tropical Medicine, Medical Parasitology, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, Vienna, A-1090, Austria
| | - David K Yeates
- Australian National Insect Collection, National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO, PO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | - Ding Yang
- Department of Entomology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Xingyue Liu
- Department of Entomology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
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13
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Rio JP, Mannion PD. Phylogenetic analysis of a new morphological dataset elucidates the evolutionary history of Crocodylia and resolves the long-standing gharial problem. PeerJ 2021; 9:e12094. [PMID: 34567843 PMCID: PMC8428266 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.12094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2020] [Accepted: 08/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
First appearing in the latest Cretaceous, Crocodylia is a clade of semi-aquatic, predatory reptiles, defined by the last common ancestor of extant alligators, caimans, crocodiles, and gharials. Despite large strides in resolving crocodylian interrelationships over the last three decades, several outstanding problems persist in crocodylian systematics. Most notably, there has been persistent discordance between morphological and molecular datasets surrounding the affinities of the extant gharials, Gavialis gangeticus and Tomistoma schlegelii. Whereas molecular data consistently support a sister taxon relationship, in which they are more closely related to crocodylids than to alligatorids, morphological data indicate that Gavialis is the sister taxon to all other extant crocodylians. Here we present a new morphological dataset for Crocodylia based on a critical reappraisal of published crocodylian character data matrices and extensive firsthand observations of a global sample of crocodylians. This comprises the most taxonomically comprehensive crocodylian dataset to date (144 OTUs scored for 330 characters) and includes a new, illustrated character list with modifications to the construction and scoring of characters, and 46 novel characters. Under a maximum parsimony framework, our analyses robustly recover Gavialis as more closely related to Tomistoma than to other extant crocodylians for the first time based on morphology alone. This result is recovered regardless of the weighting strategy and treatment of quantitative characters. However, analyses using continuous characters and extended implied weighting (with high k-values) produced the most resolved, well-supported, and stratigraphically congruent topologies overall. Resolution of the gharial problem reveals that: (1) several gavialoids lack plesiomorphic features that formerly drew them towards the stem of Crocodylia; and (2) more widespread similarities occur between species traditionally divided into tomistomines and gavialoids, with these interpreted here as homology rather than homoplasy. There remains significant temporal incongruence regarding the inferred divergence timing of the extant gharials, indicating that several putative gavialids ('thoracosaurs') are incorrectly placed and require future re-appraisal. New alligatoroid interrelationships include: (1) support for a North American origin of Caimaninae in the latest Cretaceous; (2) the recovery of the early Paleogene South American taxon Eocaiman as a 'basal' alligatoroid; and (3) the paraphyly of the Cenozoic European taxon Diplocynodon. Among crocodyloids, notable results include modifications to the taxonomic content of Mekosuchinae, including biogeographic affinities of this clade with latest Cretaceous-early Paleogene Asian crocodyloids. In light of our new results, we provide a comprehensive review of the evolutionary and biogeographic history of Crocodylia, which included multiple instances of transoceanic and continental dispersal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan P. Rio
- Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Philip D. Mannion
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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14
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Avilla LS, Mothé D. Out of Africa: A New Afrotheria Lineage Rises From Extinct South American Mammals. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.654302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The South American native ungulates (SANUs) are usually overlooked in Eutherian phylogenetic studies. In the rare studies where they were included, the diversity of SANUs was underrated, keeping their evolutionary history poorly known. Some authors recognized the SANUs as a monophyletic lineage and formally named it Meridiungulata. Here, we recognized and defined a new supraordinal lineage of Eutheria, the Sudamericungulata, after performing morphological phylogenetic analyses including all lineages of SANUs and Eutheria. The SANUs resulted as non-monophyletic; thus, Meridiungulata is not a natural group; Litopterna and “Didolodontidae” are Panameriungulata and closer to Laurasiatheria than to other “Meridiungulata” (Astrapotheria, Notoungulata, Pyrotheria, and Xenungulata). The other “Meridiungulata” is grouped in the Sudamericungulata, as a new monophyletic lineage of Afrotheria Paenungulata, and shared a common ancestor with Hyracoidea. The divergence between the African and South American lineages is estimated to Early Paleocene, and their interrelationships support the Atlantogea biogeographic model. Shortly afterward, the Sudamericungulata explosively diversified in its four lineages. Confronting the Sudamericungulata evolutionary patterns and the Cenozoic natural events (such as tectonics and climatic and environmental changes, among others) helps to unveil a new chapter in the evolution of Gondwanan Eutheria, as well as the natural history of South America during the Cenozoic.
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15
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Kania-Kłosok I, Krzemiński W, Arillo A. Two new long-rostrum cranefly species from the Cretaceous Iberian amber (Diptera, Limoniidae, Helius). Sci Rep 2021; 11:12851. [PMID: 34145304 PMCID: PMC8213732 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-91803-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2021] [Accepted: 06/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
First record of the genus Helius-long-rostrum cranefly from Maestrazgo Basin (eastern Spain, Iberian Penisula) is documented. Two new fossil species of the genus Helius are described from Cretaceous Spanish amber and compared with other species of the genus known from fossil record with particular references to these known from Cretaceous period. Helius turolensis sp. nov. is described from San Just amber (Lower Cretaceous, upper Albian) Maestrazgo Basin, eastern Spain, and Helius hispanicus sp. nov. is described from Álava amber (Lower Cretaceous, upper Albian), Basque-Cantabrian Basin, northern Spain. The specific body morphology of representatives of the genus Helius preserved in Spanish amber was discussed in relation to the environmental conditions of the Maestrazgo Basin and Basque-Cantabrian Basin in Cretaceous.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iwona Kania-Kłosok
- Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Rzeszów, Zelwerowicza 4, 35-601, Rzeszów, Poland.
| | - Wiesław Krzemiński
- Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sławkowska 17, 31-016, Kraków, Poland
| | - Antonio Arillo
- Departamento de Biodiversidad, Facultad de Biología, Ecología y Evolución, Universidad Complutense, 28040, Madrid, Spain
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16
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Degrange FJ, Pol D, Puerta P, Wilf P. Unexpected larger distribution of paleogene stem-rollers (AVES, CORACII): new evidence from the Eocene of Patagonia, Argentina. Sci Rep 2021; 11:1363. [PMID: 33446824 PMCID: PMC7809110 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-80479-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2020] [Accepted: 12/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Here we present the first record of a stem-Coracii outside the Holarctic region, found in the early Eocene of Patagonia at the Laguna del Hunco locality. Ueekenkcoracias tambussiae gen. et sp. nov. consists of an incomplete right hind limb that presents the following combination of characters, characteristic of Coracii: relatively short and stout tibiotarsus, poorly developed crista cnemialis cranialis, short and wide tarsometatarsus, with the tuberositas m. tibialis cranialis located medially on the shaft, and curved and stout ungual phalanges. Although the presence of a rounded and conspicuous foramen vasculare distale and the trochlea metatarsi II strongly deflected medially resemble Primobucconidae, a fossil group only found in the Eocene of Europe and North America, our phylogenetic analysis indicates the new taxon is the basalmost known Coracii. The unexpected presence of a stem-Coracii in the Eocene of South America indicates that this clade had a more widespread distribution than previously hypothesized, already extending into the Southern Hemisphere by the early Eocene. Ueekenkcoracias tambussiae represents new evidence of the increasing diversity of stem lineages of birds in the Eocene. The new material provides novel morphological data for understanding the evolutionary origin and radiation of rollers and important data for estimates of the divergence time of the group.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federico J Degrange
- Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra (CICTERRA), UNC, CONICET, Avenida Vélez Sársfield 1611, X5016GCA, Córdoba, Argentina.
| | - Diego Pol
- Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio-CONICET, Av. Fontana 140, U9100GYO, Trelew, Chubut, Argentina
| | - Pablo Puerta
- Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio-CONICET, Av. Fontana 140, U9100GYO, Trelew, Chubut, Argentina
| | - Peter Wilf
- Department of Geosciences and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA
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17
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Loria SF, Prendini L. Out of India, thrice: diversification of Asian forest scorpions reveals three colonizations of Southeast Asia. Sci Rep 2020; 10:22301. [PMID: 33339838 PMCID: PMC7749168 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-78183-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2019] [Accepted: 11/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
The 'Out of India' hypothesis is often invoked to explain patterns of distribution among Southeast Asian taxa. According to this hypothesis, Southeast Asian taxa originated in Gondwana, diverged from their Gondwanan relatives when the Indian subcontinent rifted from Gondwana in the Late Jurassic, and colonized Southeast Asia when it collided with Eurasia in the early Cenozoic. A growing body of evidence suggests these events were far more complex than previously understood, however. The first quantitative reconstruction of the biogeography of Asian forest scorpions (Scorpionidae Latreille, 1802: Heterometrinae Simon, 1879) is presented here. Divergence time estimation, ancestral range estimation, and diversification analyses are used to determine the origins, dispersal and diversification patterns of these scorpions, providing a timeline for their biogeographical history that can be summarized into four major events. (1) Heterometrinae diverged from other Scorpionidae on the African continent after the Indian subcontinent became separated in the Cretaceous. (2) Environmental stresses during the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) mass extinction caused range contraction, restricting one clade of Heterometrinae to refugia in southern India (the Western Ghats) and Sri Lanka (the Central Highlands). (3) Heterometrinae dispersed to Southeast Asia three times during India's collision with Eurasia, the first dispersal event occurring as the Indian subcontinent brushed up against the western side of Sumatra, and the other two events occurring as India moved closer to Eurasia. (4) Indian Heterometrinae, confined to southern India and Sri Lanka during the KT mass extinction, recolonized the Deccan Plateau and northern India, diversifying into new, more arid habitats after environmental conditions stabilized. These hypotheses, which are congruent with the geological literature and biogeographical analyses of other taxa from South and Southeast Asia, contribute to an improved understanding of the dispersal and diversification patterns of taxa in this biodiverse and geologically complex region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie F Loria
- Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th St., New York, NY, 10024-5192, USA.
- Scorpion Systematics Research Group, Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th St., New York, NY, 10024-5192, USA.
| | - Lorenzo Prendini
- Scorpion Systematics Research Group, Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th St., New York, NY, 10024-5192, USA
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18
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Sellés AG, Blanco A, Vila B, Marmi J, López-Soriano FJ, Llácer S, Frigola J, Canals M, Galobart À. A small Cretaceous crocodyliform in a dinosaur nesting ground and the origin of sebecids. Sci Rep 2020; 10:15293. [PMID: 32943663 PMCID: PMC7499430 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71975-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2019] [Accepted: 08/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Sebecosuchia was a group of highly specialized cursorial crocodyliforms that diversified during the Cretaceous and persist until the end of the Miocene. Their unique combination of cranial and post-cranial features indicates that they were active terrestrial predators that occupied the apex of the Late Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems, even competing with theropod dinosaurs. Here, we report the discovery of the earliest sebecid worldwide, and the first from Eurasia, Ogresuchus furatus gen. et sp. nov., based on a semi-articulate specimen located in a titanosaurian sauropod nesting ground. The new taxon challenges current biogeographical models about the early dispersal and radiation of sebecid crocodylomorphs, and suggests an origin of the group much earlier than previously expected. Moreover, the new taxon suggests a potential convergent evolution between linages geographically isolated. Taphonomic evidences suggest that Ogresuchus died almost in the same place where fossilized, in a dinosaur nesting area. Biometric and morphologic observations lead to speculate that Ogresuchus could easily predate on sauropod hatchlings.
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Grants
- Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, Spain)
- Departament d'Innovació, Universitats i Empresa, Generalitat de Catalunya (Department of Innovation, Education and Enterprise, Government of Catalonia)
- Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria, Xunta de Galicia (Ministry of Culture, Education and University Planning, Government of Galicia)
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Affiliation(s)
- Albert G Sellés
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, ICTA-ICP, Edifici Z, C/ de Les Columnes S/N. Campus Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.
- Museu de La Conca Dellà, c/Museu 4, 25650, Isona, Lleida, Spain.
| | - Alejandro Blanco
- Centro de Investigacións Científicas Avanzadas (CICA), Department de Física E Ciencias da Terra, Facultade de Ciencias, Universidade da Coruña, Campus da Zapateira s/n, 15071, A Coruña, Spain
- Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie Und Geologie Mesozoic Vertebrates Group, Richard-Wagner-Str. 10, 80333, München, Germany
| | - Bernat Vila
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, ICTA-ICP, Edifici Z, C/ de Les Columnes S/N. Campus Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
- Museu de La Conca Dellà, c/Museu 4, 25650, Isona, Lleida, Spain
| | - Josep Marmi
- Museu de La Conca Dellà, c/Museu 4, 25650, Isona, Lleida, Spain
| | - Francisco J López-Soriano
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 643, 08007, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Sergio Llácer
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, ICTA-ICP, Edifici Z, C/ de Les Columnes S/N. Campus Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Jaime Frigola
- GRC Geociències Marines, Dept. de Dinàmica de La Terra I de L'Oceà, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Miquel Canals
- GRC Geociències Marines, Dept. de Dinàmica de La Terra I de L'Oceà, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Àngel Galobart
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, ICTA-ICP, Edifici Z, C/ de Les Columnes S/N. Campus Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
- Museu de La Conca Dellà, c/Museu 4, 25650, Isona, Lleida, Spain
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19
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Spjut R, Simon A, Guissard M, Magain N, Sérusiaux E. The fruticose genera in the Ramalinaceae (Ascomycota, Lecanoromycetes): their diversity and evolutionary history. MycoKeys 2020; 73:1-68. [PMID: 32994702 PMCID: PMC7501315 DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.73.47287] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2019] [Accepted: 07/19/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
We present phylogenetic analyses of the fruticose Ramalinaceae based on extensive collections from many parts of the world, with a special focus on the Vizcaíno deserts in north-western Mexico and the coastal desert in Namibia. We generate a four-locus DNA sequence dataset for accessions of Ramalina and two additional loci for Niebla and Vermilacinia. Four genera are strongly supported: the subcosmopolitan Ramalina, the new genus Namibialina endemic to SW Africa, and a duo formed by Niebla and Vermilacinia, endemic to the New World except the sorediate V. zebrina that disjunctly occurs in Namibia. The latter three genera are restricted to coastal desert and chaparral where vegetation depends on moisture from ocean fog. Ramalina is subcosmopolitan and much more diverse in its ecology. We show that Ramalina and its sister genus Namibialina diverged from each other at c. 48 Myrs, whereas Vermilacinia and Niebla split at c. 30 Myrs. The phylogeny of the fruticose genera remains unresolved to their ancestral crustose genera. Species delimitation within Namibialina and Ramalina is rather straightforward. The phylogeny and taxonomy of Vermilacinia are fully resolved, except for the two youngest clades of corticolous taxa, and support current taxonomy, including four new taxa described here. Secondary metabolite variation in Niebla generally coincides with major clades which are comprised of species complexes with still unresolved phylogenetic relationships. A micro-endemism pattern of allopatric species is strongly suspected for both genera, except for the corticolous taxa within Vermilacinia. Both Niebla and saxicolous Vermilacinia have chemotypes unique to species clades that are largely endemic to the Vizcaíno deserts. The following new taxa are described: Namibialina gen. nov. with N. melanothrix (comb. nov.) as type species, a single new species of Ramalina (R. krogiae) and four new species of Vermilacinia (V. breviloba, V. lacunosa, V. pustulata and V. reticulata). The new combination V. granulans is introduced. Two epithets are re-introduced for European Ramalina species: R. crispans (= R. peruviana auct. eur.) and R. rosacea (= R. bourgeana auct. p.p). A lectotype is designated for Vermilacinia procera. A key to saxicolous species of Vermilacinia is presented.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Spjut
- World Botanical Associates, PO Box 81145, Bakersfield, California 93380, USA World Botanical Associates Bakersfield, CA United States of America
| | - Antoine Simon
- Evolution and Conservation Biology Unit, Sart Tilman B22, Quartier Vallée 1, chemin de la vallée 4, B-4000 Liège, Belgium Evolution and Conservation Biology Unit Liège Belgium
| | - Martin Guissard
- Evolution and Conservation Biology Unit, Sart Tilman B22, Quartier Vallée 1, chemin de la vallée 4, B-4000 Liège, Belgium Evolution and Conservation Biology Unit Liège Belgium
| | - Nicolas Magain
- Evolution and Conservation Biology Unit, Sart Tilman B22, Quartier Vallée 1, chemin de la vallée 4, B-4000 Liège, Belgium Evolution and Conservation Biology Unit Liège Belgium
| | - Emmanuël Sérusiaux
- Evolution and Conservation Biology Unit, Sart Tilman B22, Quartier Vallée 1, chemin de la vallée 4, B-4000 Liège, Belgium Evolution and Conservation Biology Unit Liège Belgium
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20
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Chimento NR, Agnolin FL. Phylogenetic tree of Litopterna and Perissodactyla indicates a complex early history of hoofed mammals. Sci Rep 2020; 10:13280. [PMID: 32764723 PMCID: PMC7413542 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-70287-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2020] [Accepted: 07/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The Litopterna is an extinct clade of endemic South American ungulates that range from Paleocene up to late Pleistocene times. Because of their unique anatomy, litopterns are of uncertain phylogenetic affinities. However, some nineteenth century authors, considered litopterns as related to perissodactyl ungulates, a hypothesis recently sustained by molecular data. The aim of the present contribution is to include litopterns and other South American related taxa in a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis together with several extant and extinct basal perissodactyl ungulates. The analysis resulted in the nesting of litopterns and kin as successive stem-clades of crown Perissodactyla. Further, litopterns are not phylogenetically grouped with any North American basal ungulate, in agreement with some previous proposals. Presence of pan-perissodactyls in South America and India indicates that southern continents probably played an important role in the early evolution of hoofed mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolás R Chimento
- Laboratorio de Anatomía Comparada y Evolución de los Vertebrados (LACEV) Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia" (MACN), Av. Ángel Gallardo 470 (C1405DJR), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
| | - Federico L Agnolin
- Laboratorio de Anatomía Comparada y Evolución de los Vertebrados (LACEV) Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia" (MACN), Av. Ángel Gallardo 470 (C1405DJR), Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Fundación de Historia Natural "Félix de Azara", Centro de Ciencias Naturales, Ambientales y Antropológicas, Universidad Maimónides, Hidalgo 775 (C1405BDB), Buenos Aires, Argentina
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21
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Exquisitely Preserved Fossil Snakes of Messel: Insight into the Evolution, Biogeography, Habitat Preferences and Sensory Ecology of Early Boas. DIVERSITY 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/d12030100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Our knowledge of early evolution of snakes is improving, but all that we can infer about the evolution of modern clades of snakes such as boas (Booidea) is still based on isolated bones. Here, we resolve the phylogenetic relationships of Eoconstrictor fischeri comb. nov. and other booids from the early-middle Eocene of Messel (Germany), the best-known fossil snake assemblage yet discovered. Our combined analyses demonstrate an affinity of Eoconstrictor with Neotropical boas, thus entailing a South America-to-Europe dispersal event. Other booid species from Messel are related to different New World clades, reinforcing the cosmopolitan nature of the Messel booid fauna. Our analyses indicate that Eoconstrictor was a terrestrial, medium- to large-bodied snake that bore labial pit organs in the upper jaw, the earliest evidence that the visual system in snakes incorporated the infrared spectrum. Evaluation of the known palaeobiology of Eoconstrictor provides no evidence that pit organs played a role in the predator–prey relations of this stem boid. At the same time, the morphological diversity of Messel booids reflects the occupation of several terrestrial macrohabitats, and even in the earliest booid community the relation between pit organs and body size is similar to that seen in booids today.
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22
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Kubo T. Biogeographical Network Analysis of Cretaceous Terrestrial Tetrapods: A Phylogeny-Based Approach. Syst Biol 2020; 68:1034-1051. [PMID: 31135923 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syz024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2018] [Revised: 03/13/2019] [Accepted: 04/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Network methods are widely used to represent and analyze biogeography. It is difficult, however, to convert occurrence data of fossil vertebrates to a biogeographical network, as most species were known from a single locality. A new method for creating a biogeographical network that can incorporate phylogenetic information is proposed in this study, which increases the number of edges in the network of fossil vertebrates and enables the application of various network methods. Using ancestral state reconstruction via maximum parsimony, the method first estimates the biogeographical regions of all internal nodes of a given phylogeny using biogeographical information on the terminal taxa. Then, each internal node in the phylogenetic tree is converted to an edge in the biogeographical network that connects the region(s), if unambiguously estimated, of its two descendants. The new method was applied to phylogenetic trees generated by a birth-death model. Under all conditions tested, an average of $CDATA[$CDATA[$>$$70% of the internal nodes in phylogenetic trees were converted into edges. Three network indices-link density, average link weight, and endemism index (EI)-were evaluated for their usefulness in comparing different biogeographical networks. The EI reflects the rate of dispersal; the other indices reflect nonbiogeographical parameters, the number of taxa and regions, which highlights the importance of evaluating network indices before applying them to biogeographical studies. Multiple Cretaceous biogeographical networks were constructed from the phylogenies of five tetrapod taxa: terrestrial crocodyliforms, terrestrial turtles, nonavian dinosaurs, avians, and pterosaurs. The networks of avians and pterosaurs showed similar topologies and a strong correlation, and unexpectedly high endemism indices. These similarities were probably a result of shared taphonomic biases (i.e., the Lagerstätten effect) for volant taxa with fragile skeletons. The crocodyliform network was partitioned into the Gondwanan and Laurasian continents. The dinosaur network was partitioned into three groups of continents: 1) North America, Asia, and Australia; 2) Europe and Africa; and 3) India, Madagascar, and South America. When Early and Late Cretaceous dinosaurs were analyzed separately, the dinosaur networks were divided into 1) North America, Asia, and Australia; and 2) Europe, Africa, India, and South America for the Early Cretaceous and 1) North America, Asia, and Europe; and 2) India, Madagascar, and South America for the Late Cretaceous. This partitioning of dinosaur and crocodyliform networks corroborates the results of previous biogeographical studies and indicates that the method introduced here can retrieve biogeographical signals from a source phylogeny when sufficient data are available for most targeted biogeographical regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tai Kubo
- The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyou-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
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23
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Fu CN, Mo ZQ, Yang JB, Ge XJ, Li DZ, Xiang QY(J, Gao LM. Plastid phylogenomics and biogeographic analysis support a trans-Tethyan origin and rapid early radiation of Cornales in the Mid-Cretaceous. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2019; 140:106601. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2019.106601] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2019] [Revised: 08/17/2019] [Accepted: 08/20/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
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24
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Abstract
Abstract
The Afrotropics house a diverse freshwater ichthyofauna with > 3000 species, almost all of which are endemic. Recent progress in dated phylogenetics and palaeontology of several groups of Afrotropical freshwater fishes (AFFs) has allowed the testing of palaeoecology- and palaeogeography-based hypotheses explaining their early presence in Africa. Seven hypotheses were tested for 37 most-inclusive monophyletic groups of AFFs. Results indicated that ten lineages originated from direct, but asynchronous, marine-to-freshwater shifts. These lineages contribute < 2% to the current AFF species richness. Eleven lineages colonized the Afrotropics from the Orient after the Afro-Arabian plate collided with Eurasia in the early Oligocene. These lineages contribute ~20% to the total diversity. There are seven sister relationships between Afrotropical and Neotropical taxa. For only three of them (4% of the species diversity), the continental drift vicariance hypothesis was not rejected. Distributions of the other four younger trans-Atlantic lineages are better explained by post-drifting long-distance dispersal. In those cases, I discuss the possibility of dispersal through the Northern Hemisphere as an alternative to direct trans-Atlantic dispersal. The origins of ten AFF lineages, including the most species-rich Pseudocrenilabrinae (> 1100 species), are not yet established with confidence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sébastien Lavoué
- School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
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25
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Chokchaloemwong D, Hattori S, Cuesta E, Jintasakul P, Shibata M, Azuma Y. A new carcharodontosaurian theropod (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Lower Cretaceous of Thailand. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0222489. [PMID: 31596853 PMCID: PMC6784982 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2019] [Accepted: 08/30/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The isolated fossil remains of an allosauroid theropod from the Lower Cretaceous Khok Kruat Formation of Khorat, Thailand, are described in this study. Detailed observations support the establishment of a new allosauroid, Siamraptor suwati gen. et sp. nov. This new taxon is based on a composite cranial and postcranial skeleton comprising premaxilla, maxilla, jugal, surangular, prearticular, articular, vertebrae, manual ungual, ischium, tibia, and pedal phalanx. It is distinguished from other allosauroids by characters such as a jugal with straight ventral margin and dorsoventrally deep anterior process below the orbit, a surangular with a deep oval concavity at the posterior end of the lateral shelf and four posterior surangular foramina, a long and narrow groove along the suture between the surangular and the prearticular, an articular with a foramen at the notch of the suture with the prearticular, an anterior cervical vertebra with a pneumatic foramen (so-called 'pleurocoel') excavating parapophysis, and cervical and posterior dorsal vertebrae penetrated by a pair of small foramina bilaterally at the base of the neural spine. The presence of a huge number of camerae and pneumatopores in cranial and axial elements reveals a remarkable skeletal pneumatic system in this new taxon. Moreover, the phylogenetic analyses revealed that Siamraptor is a basal taxon of Carcharodontosauria, involving a new sight of the paleobiogeographical context of this group. Siamraptor is the best preserved carcharodontosaurian theropod in Southeast Asia, and it sheds new light on the early evolutionary history of Carcharodontosauria.
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Affiliation(s)
- Duangsuda Chokchaloemwong
- Northeastern Research Institute of Petrified Wood and Mineral Resources, Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University, Suranaree Subdistict, Mueang, Nakhon Ratchasima District, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
| | - Soki Hattori
- Institute of Dinosaur Research, Fukui Prefectural University, Kenjojima, Matsuoka, Eiheiji–Cho, Fukui, Japan
- Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, Muroko, Terao, Katsuyama, Fukui, Japan
| | - Elena Cuesta
- Institute of Dinosaur Research, Fukui Prefectural University, Kenjojima, Matsuoka, Eiheiji–Cho, Fukui, Japan
| | - Pratueng Jintasakul
- Northeastern Research Institute of Petrified Wood and Mineral Resources, Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University, Suranaree Subdistict, Mueang, Nakhon Ratchasima District, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
| | - Masateru Shibata
- Institute of Dinosaur Research, Fukui Prefectural University, Kenjojima, Matsuoka, Eiheiji–Cho, Fukui, Japan
- Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, Muroko, Terao, Katsuyama, Fukui, Japan
| | - Yoichi Azuma
- Institute of Dinosaur Research, Fukui Prefectural University, Kenjojima, Matsuoka, Eiheiji–Cho, Fukui, Japan
- Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, Muroko, Terao, Katsuyama, Fukui, Japan
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26
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Mannion PD, Upchurch P, Jin X, Zheng W. New information on the Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs of Zhejiang Province, China: impact on Laurasian titanosauriform phylogeny and biogeography. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:191057. [PMID: 31598266 PMCID: PMC6731702 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.191057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2019] [Accepted: 08/01/2019] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Titanosaurs were a globally distributed clade of Cretaceous sauropods. Historically regarded as a primarily Gondwanan radiation, there is a growing number of Eurasian taxa, with several putative titanosaurs contemporaneous with, or even pre-dating, the oldest known Southern Hemisphere remains. The early Late Cretaceous Jinhua Formation, in Zhejiang Province, China, has yielded two putative titanosaurs, Jiangshanosaurus lixianensis and Dongyangosaurus sinensis. Here, we provide a detailed re-description and diagnosis of Jiangshanosaurus, as well as new anatomical information on Dongyangosaurus. Previously, a 'derived' titanosaurian placement for Jiangshanosaurus was primarily based on the presence of procoelous anterior caudal centra. We show that this taxon had amphicoelous anterior-middle caudal centra. Its only titanosaurian synapomorphy is that the dorsal margins of the scapula and coracoid are approximately level with one another. Dongyangosaurus can clearly be differentiated from Jiangshanosaurus, and displays features that indicate a closer relationship to the titanosaur radiation. Revised scores for both taxa are incorporated into an expanded phylogenetic data matrix, comprising 124 taxa scored for 548 characters. Under equal weights parsimony, Jiangshanosaurus is recovered as a member of the non-titanosaurian East Asian somphospondylan clade Euhelopodidae, and Dongyangosaurus lies just outside of Titanosauria. However, when extended implied weighting is applied, both taxa are placed within Titanosauria. Most other 'middle' Cretaceous East Asian sauropods are probably non-titanosaurian somphospondylans, but at least Xianshanosaurus appears to belong to the titanosaur radiation. Our analyses also recover the Early Cretaceous European sauropod Normanniasaurus genceyi as a 'derived' titanosaur, clustering with Gondwanan taxa. These results provide further support for a widespread diversification of titanosaurs by at least the Early Cretaceous.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip D. Mannion
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Paul Upchurch
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Xingsheng Jin
- Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310014, People's Republic of China
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS), Nanjing, Jiangsu 210008, People's Republic of China
| | - Wenjie Zheng
- Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310014, People's Republic of China
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS), Nanjing, Jiangsu 210008, People's Republic of China
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27
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Gorscak E, O’Connor PM. A new African Titanosaurian Sauropod Dinosaur from the middle Cretaceous Galula Formation (Mtuka Member), Rukwa Rift Basin, Southwestern Tanzania. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0211412. [PMID: 30759122 PMCID: PMC6374010 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211412] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2018] [Accepted: 01/14/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The African terrestrial fossil record has been limited in its contribution to our understanding of both regional and global Cretaceous paleobiogeography, an interval of significant geologic and macroevolutionary change. A common component in Cretaceous African faunas, titanosaurian sauropods diversified into one of the most specious groups of dinosaurs worldwide. Here we describe the new titanosaurian Mnyamawamtuka moyowamkia gen. et sp. nov. from the Mtuka Member of the Galula Formation in southwest Tanzania. The new specimen preserves teeth, elements from all regions of the postcranial axial skeleton, parts of both appendicular girdles, and portions of both limbs including a complete metatarsus. Unique traits of M. moyowamkia include the lack of an interpostzygapophyseal lamina in posterior dorsal vertebrae, pronounced posterolateral expansion of middle caudal centra, and an unusually small sternal plate. Phylogenetic analyses consistently place M. moyowamkia as either a close relative to lithostrotian titanosaurians (e.g., parsimony, uncalibrated Bayesian analyses) or as a lithostrotian and sister taxon to Malawisaurus dixeyi from the nearby Aptian? Dinosaur Beds of Malawi (e.g., tip-dating Bayesian analyses). M. moyowamkia shares a few features with M. dixeyi, including semi-spatulate teeth and a median lamina between the neural canal and interpostzygapophyseal lamina in anterior dorsal vertebrae. Both comparative morphology and phylogenetic analyses support Mnyamawamtuka as a distinct and distant relative to Rukwatitan bisepultus and Shingopana songwensis from the younger Namba Member of the Galula Formation with these results largely congruent with newly constrained ages for the Mtuka Member (Aptian–Cenomanian) and Namba Member (Campanian). Coupled with recent discoveries from the Dahkla Oasis, Egypt (e.g., Mansourasaurus shahinae) and other parts of continental Afro-Arabia, the Tanzania titanosaurians refine perspectives on the development of African terrestrial faunas throughout the Cretaceous—a critical step in understanding non-marine paleobiogeographic patterns of Africa that have remained elusive until the past few years.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric Gorscak
- Department of Anatomy, Midwestern University, Downers Grove, Illinois, United States of America
- Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, United States of America
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens, Ohio, United States of America
- Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Patrick M. O’Connor
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens, Ohio, United States of America
- Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, United States of America
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28
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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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29
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CARNEIRO LEONARDOM. A new protodidelphid (Mammalia, Marsupialia, Didelphimorphia) from the Itaboraí Basin and its implications for the evolution of the Protodidelphidae. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2019; 91Suppl 2:e20180440. [DOI: 10.1590/0001-3765201820180440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2018] [Accepted: 07/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- LEONARDO M. CARNEIRO
- Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Laboratório de Paleontologia e Paleoecologia da Sociedade de História Natural, Portugal
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30
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Holwerda FM, Díez Díaz V, Blanco A, Montie R, Reumer JWF. Late Cretaceous sauropod tooth morphotypes may provide supporting evidence for faunal connections between North Africa and Southern Europe. PeerJ 2018; 6:e5925. [PMID: 30473934 PMCID: PMC6237117 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5925] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2018] [Accepted: 10/13/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The Cretaceous Kem Kem beds of Morocco and equivalent beds in Algeria have produced a rich fossil assemblage, yielding, amongst others, isolated sauropod teeth, which can be used in species diversity studies. These Albian-Cenomanian (∼113–93.9 Ma) strata rarely yield sauropod body fossils, therefore, isolated teeth can help to elucidate the faunal assemblages from North Africa, and their relations with those of contemporaneous beds and geographically close assemblages. Eighteen isolated sauropod teeth from three localities (Erfoud and Taouz, Morocco, and Algeria) are studied here, to assess whether the teeth can be ascribed to a specific clade, and whether different tooth morphotypes can be found in the samples. Two general morphotypes are found, based on enamel wrinkling and general tooth morphology. Morphotype I, with mainly rugose enamel wrinkling, pronounced carinae, lemon-shaped to (sub)cylindrical cross-section and mesiodistal tapering towards an apical tip, shows affinities to titanosauriforms and titanosaurs. Morphotype II, characterized by more smooth enamel, cylindrical cross-section, rectangular teeth with no apical tapering and both labial and lingual wear facets, shows similarities to rebbachisaurids. Moreover, similarities are found between these northwest African tooth morphotypes, and tooth morphotypes from titanosaurs and rebbachisaurids from both contemporaneous finds from north and central Africa, as well as from the latest Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian, 83.6 Ma–66.0 Ma) of the Ibero-Armorican Island. These results support previous hypotheses from earlier studies on faunal exchange and continental connections between North Africa and Southern Europe in the Cretaceous.
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Affiliation(s)
- Femke M Holwerda
- Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.,SNSB-Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Bavaria, Germany.,Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and GeoBioCenter, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Bavaria, Germany
| | - Verónica Díez Díaz
- Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions-und Biodiversitätsforschung, Berlin, Germany.,Humboldt Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Alejandro Blanco
- SNSB-Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Bavaria, Germany.,Centro de Investigacións Científicas Avanzadas (CICA), Facultade de Ciencias, Universidade da Coruña, A Coruña, Spain
| | - Roel Montie
- Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.,SNSB-Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Bavaria, Germany.,Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and GeoBioCenter, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Bavaria, Germany
| | - Jelle W F Reumer
- Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
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31
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Ceratosaur palaeobiology: new insights on evolution and ecology of the southern rulers. Sci Rep 2018; 8:9730. [PMID: 29950661 PMCID: PMC6021374 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-28154-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2017] [Accepted: 06/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Ceratosaur theropods ruled the Southern Hemisphere until the end of the Late Cretaceous. However, their origin was earlier, during the Early Jurassic, a fact which allowed the group to reach great morphological diversity. The body plans of the two main branches (Noasauridae and new name Etrigansauria: Ceratosauridae + Abelisauridae) are quite different; nevertheless, they are sister taxa. Abelisaurids have lost the ability to grasp in the most derived taxa, but the reduced forelimb might have had some display function. The ontogenetic changes are well known in Limusaurus which lost all their teeth and probably changed the dietary preference at maturity. The results presented here suggest that abelisaurids had different soft tissues on the skull. These tissues might have been associated with evolution of a strong cervicocephalic complex and should have allowed derived taxa (e.g. Majungasaurus and Carnotaurus) to have low-displacement headbutting matches. The ability to live in different semi-arid environment plus high morphological disparity allowed the ceratosaurs to become an evolutionary success.
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32
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Sallam HM, Gorscak E, O'Connor PM, El-Dawoudi IA, El-Sayed S, Saber S, Kora MA, Sertich JJW, Seiffert ER, Lamanna MC. New Egyptian sauropod reveals Late Cretaceous dinosaur dispersal between Europe and Africa. Nat Ecol Evol 2018; 2:445-451. [PMID: 29379183 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0455-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2017] [Accepted: 12/15/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Prominent hypotheses advanced over the past two decades have sought to characterize the Late Cretaceous continental vertebrate palaeobiogeography of Gondwanan landmasses, but have proved difficult to test because terrestrial vertebrates from the final ~30 million years of the Mesozoic are extremely rare and fragmentary on continental Africa (including the then-conjoined Arabian Peninsula but excluding the island of Madagascar). Here we describe a new titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur, Mansourasaurus shahinae gen. et sp. nov., from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Quseir Formation of the Dakhla Oasis of the Egyptian Western Desert. Represented by an associated partial skeleton that includes cranial elements, Mansourasaurus is the most completely preserved land-living vertebrate from the post-Cenomanian Cretaceous (~94-66 million years ago) of the African continent. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrate that Mansourasaurus is nested within a clade of penecontemporaneous titanosaurians from southern Europe and eastern Asia, thereby providing the first unambiguous evidence for a post-Cenomanian Cretaceous continental vertebrate clade that inhabited both Africa and Europe. The close relationship of Mansourasaurus to coeval Eurasian titanosaurians indicates that terrestrial vertebrate dispersal occurred between Eurasia and northern Africa after the tectonic separation of the latter from South America ~100 million years ago. These findings counter hypotheses that dinosaur faunas of the African mainland were completely isolated during the post-Cenomanian Cretaceous.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hesham M Sallam
- Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center, Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.
| | - Eric Gorscak
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA.,Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA.,Integrative Research Center, The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Patrick M O'Connor
- Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA.,Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens, OH, USA
| | - Iman A El-Dawoudi
- Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center, Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
| | - Sanaa El-Sayed
- Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center, Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
| | - Sara Saber
- Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center, Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.,Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt
| | - Mahmoud A Kora
- Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center, Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
| | - Joseph J W Sertich
- Department of Earth Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, CO, USA
| | - Erik R Seiffert
- Department of Integrative Anatomical Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Matthew C Lamanna
- Section of Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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33
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Wu Y, You HL, Li XQ. Dinosaur-associated Poaceae epidermis and phytoliths from the Early Cretaceous of China. Natl Sci Rev 2017. [DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwx145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Yan Wu
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing 100044, China
- College of Earth Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Hai-Lu You
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing 100044, China
- College of Earth Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Xiao-Qiang Li
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China
- CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing 100044, China
- College of Earth Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
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Paladini A, Takiya DM, Urban JM, Cryan JR. New World spittlebugs (Hemiptera: Cercopidae: Ischnorhininae): Dated molecular phylogeny, classification, and evolution of aposematic coloration. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2017; 120:321-334. [PMID: 29274496 DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2017.12.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2017] [Revised: 11/28/2017] [Accepted: 12/14/2017] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
The spittlebug family Cercopidae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadomorpha: Cercopoidea) is distributed worldwide, with highest species diversity in the tropics. Several included species are economically important pests of major agricultural crops and cultivated pasture grasses. Taxonomically, Cercopidae is divided into two subfamilies: the paraphyletic Old World Cercopinae and the monophyletic New World Ischnorhininae. Results are here presented from an investigation of phylogenetic relationships within Ischnorhininae based on DNA sequences from seven loci (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, Histone 2A, Histone 3, Wingless, Cytochrome Oxidase I, and Cytochrome Oxidase II) generated from exemplars of 119 spittlebug species. The resulting topology is used to test alternative higher-level classification hypotheses of Ischnorhininae and, with fossil-calibration, dates were estimated for major events in the evolutionary history of Cercopidae, including a much earlier divergence date (around 68-50 Mya) than previously reported in the literature. In addition, for the first time in Cercopidae, ancestral states of some predation avoidances strategies were reconstructed, with results suggesting an origin of aposematic coloration in the Cercopidae ancestor, with subsequent independent losses of aposematic coloration in multiple lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andressa Paladini
- Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Departamento de Ecologia e Evolução, Av. Roraima, 1000, Camobi, Santa Maria, 97105-900 RS, Brazil; Programa de Pós-graduação em Entomologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
| | - Daniela M Takiya
- Laboratório de Entomologia, Caixa Postal 68044, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 21941-971 RJ, Brazil.
| | - Julie M Urban
- Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA.
| | - Jason R Cryan
- North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC 27601 USA.
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Brunke AJ, Chatzimanolis S, Metscher BD, Wolf-Schwenninger K, Solodovnikov A. Dispersal of thermophilic beetles across the intercontinental Arctic forest belt during the early Eocene. Sci Rep 2017; 7:12972. [PMID: 29021627 PMCID: PMC5636899 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-13207-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2017] [Accepted: 09/21/2017] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Massive biotic change occurred during the Eocene as the climate shifted from warm and equable to seasonal and latitudinally stratified. Mild winter temperatures across Arctic intercontinental land bridges permitted dispersal of frost-intolerant groups until the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, while trans-Arctic dispersal in thermophilic groups may have been limited to the early Eocene, especially during short-lived hyperthermals. Some of these lineages are now disjunct between continents of the northern hemisphere. Although Eocene climate change may have been one of the most important drivers of these ancient patterns in modern animal and plant distributions, its particular events are rarely implicated or correlated with group-specific climatic requirements. Here we explored the climatic and geological drivers of a particularly striking Neotropical-Oriental disjunct distribution in the rove beetle Bolitogyrus, a suspected Eocene relict. We integrated evidence from Eocene fossils, distributional and climate data, paleoclimate, paleogeography, and phylogenetic divergence dating to show that intercontinental dispersal of Bolitogyrus ceased in the early Eocene, consistent with the termination of conditions required by thermophilic lineages. These results provide new insight into the poorly known and short-lived Arctic forest community of the Early Eocene and its surviving lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam J Brunke
- Third Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum of Vienna, Burgring 7, 1010, Vienna, Austria.
- Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, K1A 0C6, ON, Canada.
| | - Stylianos Chatzimanolis
- Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 615 McCallie Ave, Dept. 2653, Chattanooga, TN, 37403, USA
| | - Brian D Metscher
- Department of Theoretical Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Alexey Solodovnikov
- Biosystematics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Universitetsparken 15, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark
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Costa WJEM, Amorim PF, Mattos JLO. Molecular phylogeny and timing of diversification in South American Cynolebiini seasonal killifishes. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2017; 116:61-68. [PMID: 28754241 DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2017.07.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2017] [Revised: 07/10/2017] [Accepted: 07/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The rich biological diversity of South America has motivated a series of studies associating evolution of endemic taxa with the dramatic geologic and climatic changes that occurred during the Cainozoic. The organism here studied is the killifish tribe Cynolebiini, a group of seasonal fishes uniquely inhabiting temporary pools formed during the rainy seasons. The Cynolebiini are found in open vegetation areas inserted in the main tropical and subtropical South American phytogeographical regions east of the Andes. Here, we present the first molecular phylogeny sampling all the eight genera of the Cynolebiini, using fragments of two mitochondrial and four nuclear genes for 35 species of Cynolebiini plus 19 species as outgroups. The dataset, 4448bp, was analysed under Bayesian and maximum likelihood approaches, providing a relatively well solved tree, which retrieves high support values for the Cynolebiini and most included clades. The resulting tree was used to estimate the time of divergence in included lineages using two cyprinodontiform fossils to calibrate the tree. We further investigated historical biogeography through the likelihood-based DEC model. Our estimates indicate that divergence between the clades comprising New World and Old World aplocheiloids occurred during the Eocene, about 50Mya, much more recent than the Gondwanan fragmentation scenario assumed in previous studies. This estimation is nearly synchronous to estimated splits involving other South American and African vertebrate clades, which have been explained by transoceanic dispersal through an ancient Atlantic island chain during the Palaeogene. We estimate that Cynolebiini split from its sister group Cynopoecilini in the Oligocene, about 25Mya and that Cynolebiini started to diversify giving origin to the present genera during the Miocene, about 20-14Mya. The Cynolebiini had an ancestral origin in the Atlantic Forest and probably were not present in the open vegetation formations of central and northeastern South America until the Middle Miocene, when expansion of dry open vegetation was favoured by cool temperatures and strike seasonality. Initial splitting between the genera Cynolebias and Simpsonichthys during the Miocene (about 14Mya) is attributed to the uplift of the Central Brazilian Plateau.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wilson J E M Costa
- Laboratory of Systematics and Evolution of Teleost Fishes, Institute of Biology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68049, CEP 21944-970 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
| | - Pedro F Amorim
- Laboratory of Systematics and Evolution of Teleost Fishes, Institute of Biology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68049, CEP 21944-970 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
| | - José Leonardo O Mattos
- Laboratory of Systematics and Evolution of Teleost Fishes, Institute of Biology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68049, CEP 21944-970 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
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Torcida Fernández-Baldor F, Canudo JI, Huerta P, Moreno-Azanza M, Montero D. Europatitan eastwoodi, a new sauropod from the lower Cretaceous of Iberia in the initial radiation of somphospondylans in Laurasia. PeerJ 2017; 5:e3409. [PMID: 28674644 PMCID: PMC5490465 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3409] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2017] [Accepted: 05/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The sauropod of El Oterillo II is a specimen that was excavated from the Castrillo de la Reina Formation (Burgos, Spain), late Barremian–early Aptian, in the 2000s but initially remained undescribed. A tooth and elements of the axial skeleton, and the scapular and pelvic girdle, represent it. It is one of the most complete titanosauriform sauropods from the Early Cretaceous of Europe and presents an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the radiation of this clade in the Early Cretaceous and study the paleobiogeographical relationships of Iberia with Gondwana and with other parts of Laurasia. The late Barremian–early Aptian is the time interval in the Cretaceous with the greatest diversity of sauropod taxa described in Iberia: two titanosauriforms, Tastavinsaurus and Europatitan; and a rebbachisaurid, Demandasaurus. The new sauropod Europatitan eastwoodi n. gen. n. sp. presents a series of autapomorphic characters in the presacral vertebrae and scapula that distinguish it from the other sauropods of the Early Cretaceous of Iberia. Our phylogenetic study locates Europatitan as the basalmost member of the Somphospondyli, clearly differentiated from other clades such as Brachiosauridae and Titanosauria, and distantly related to the contemporaneous Tastavinsaurus. Europatitan could be a representative of a Eurogondwanan fauna like Demandasaurus, the other sauropod described from the Castrillo de la Reina Formation. The presence of a sauropod fauna with marked Gondwananan affinities in the Aptian of Iberia reinforces the idea of faunal exchanges between this continental masses during the Early Cretaceous. Further specimens and more detailed analysis are needed to elucidate if this Aptian fauna is caused by the presence of previously unnoticed Aptian land bridges, or it represents a relict fauna from an earlier dispersal event.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fidel Torcida Fernández-Baldor
- Museo de Dinosaurios, Salas de los Infantes, Burgos, Spain.,Colectivo Arqueológico-Paleontológico Salense, Salas de los Infantes, Burgos, Spain
| | - José Ignacio Canudo
- Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.,Grupo Aragosaurus-IUCA, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Pedro Huerta
- Museo de Dinosaurios, Salas de los Infantes, Burgos, Spain.,Colectivo Arqueológico-Paleontológico Salense, Salas de los Infantes, Burgos, Spain.,Departamento de Geología, Escuela Politécnica Superior de Ávila, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
| | - Miguel Moreno-Azanza
- GeoBioTec, Departamento de Ciências da Terra, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal.,Museu da Lourinhã, Lourinhã, Portugal
| | - Diego Montero
- Museo de Dinosaurios, Salas de los Infantes, Burgos, Spain.,Colectivo Arqueológico-Paleontológico Salense, Salas de los Infantes, Burgos, Spain
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Selvatti AP, Galvão A, Pereira AG, Pedreira Gonzaga L, Russo CADM. An African Origin of the Eurylaimides (Passeriformes) and the Successful Diversification of the Ground-Foraging Pittas (Pittidae). Mol Biol Evol 2017; 34:483-499. [PMID: 28069777 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msw250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
The Eurylaimides is one of the few passerine groups with a pantropical distribution. In this study, we generated a multi-calibrated tree with 83% of eurylaimid species diversity based on 30 molecular loci. Particular attention was given to the monotypic Sapayoidae to reconstruct the biogeography of this radiation. We conducted several topological tests including nonoverlapping subsampling of the concatenated alignment and coalescent species tree reconstruction. These tests firmly placed the South American Sapayoidae as the sister group to all other Eurylaimides families (split at ∼28 Ma), with increasing branch support as highly variable sites were removed. This topology is consistent with the breakup of the insular connection between Africa and South America (Atlantogea) that took place between the middle Eocene and the early Oligocene. We recovered Africa as the cradle of the core Eurylaimides, and this result is supported by all African lineages corresponding to the oldest splits within each family in this group. Our timescale suggests that desertification and the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau caused a parallel divergence between African and Asian lineages in all major clades in the core Eurylaimides at 22-9 Ma. We also propose that the ground-foraging behavior in the Pittidae ancestor allowed the pitta lineage to thrive and coexist with the older arboreal lineages of the core Eurylaimides. In contrast, the diversification of pittas in Australia was likely hindered by direct competition with the endemic ground-foraging oscines that had been well established in that continent since the Eocene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandre Pedro Selvatti
- Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
| | - Ana Galvão
- Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
| | - Anieli Guirro Pereira
- Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
| | - Luiz Pedreira Gonzaga
- Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
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Gorscak E, O'Connor PM. Time-calibrated models support congruency between Cretaceous continental rifting and titanosaurian evolutionary history. Biol Lett 2017; 12:rsbl.2015.1047. [PMID: 27048465 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.1047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2015] [Accepted: 03/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent model-based phylogenetic approaches have expanded upon the incorporation of extinct lineages and their respective temporal information for calibrating divergence date estimates. Here, model-based methods are explored to estimate divergence dates and ancestral ranges for titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs, an extinct and globally distributed terrestrial clade that existed during the extensive Cretaceous supercontinental break-up. Our models estimate an Early Cretaceous (approx. 135 Ma) South American origin for Titanosauria. The estimated divergence dates are broadly congruent with Cretaceous geophysical models of supercontinental separation and subsequent continental isolation while obviating the invocation of continuous Late Cretaceous continental connections (e.g. ephemeral land bridges). Divergence dates for mid-Cretaceous African and South American sister lineages support semi-isolated subequatorial African faunas in concordance with the gradual northward separation between South America and Africa. Finally, Late Cretaceous Africa may have linked Laurasian lineages with their sister South American lineages, though the current Late Cretaceous African terrestrial fossil record remains meagre.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric Gorscak
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, 107 Irvine Hall, Athens, OH 45701, USA Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, Irvine Hall, Athens, OH 45701, USA
| | - Patrick M O'Connor
- Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, Irvine Hall, Athens, OH 45701, USA Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, 228 Irvine Hall, Athens, OH 45701, USA
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40
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Pereira AG, Schrago CG. Arrival and diversification of mabuyine skinks (Squamata: Scincidae) in the Neotropics based on a fossil-calibrated timetree. PeerJ 2017; 5:e3194. [PMID: 28439466 PMCID: PMC5398276 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2016] [Accepted: 03/16/2017] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The evolution of South American Mabuyinae skinks holds significant biogeographic interest because its sister lineage is distributed across the African continent and adjacent islands. Moreover, at least one insular species, Trachylepis atlantica, has independently reached the New World through transoceanic dispersal. To clarify the evolutionary history of both Neotropical lineages, this study aimed to infer an updated timescale using the largest species and gene sampling dataset ever assembled for this group. By extending the analysis to the Scincidae family, we could employ fossil information to estimate mabuyinae divergence times and carried out a formal statistical biogeography analysis. To unveil macroevolutionary patterns, we also inferred diversification rates for this lineage and evaluated whether the colonization of South American continent significantly altered the mode of Mabuyinae evolution. METHODS A time-calibrated phylogeny was inferred under the Bayesian framework employing fossil information. This timetree was used to (i) evaluate the historical biogeography of mabuiyines using the statistical approach implemented in BioGeoBEARS; (ii) estimate macroevolutionary diversification rates of the South American Mabuyinae lineages and the patterns of evolution of selected traits, namely, the mode of reproduction, body mass and snout-vent length; (iii) test the hypothesis of differential macroevolutionary patterns in South American lineages in BAMM and GeoSSE; and (iv) re-evaluate the ancestral state of the mode of reproduction of mabuyines. RESULTS Our results corroborated the hypothesis that the occupation of the South American continent by Mabuyinae consisted of two independent dispersion events that occurred between the Oligocene and the Miocene. We found significant differences in speciation rates between the New World and the remaining Mabuyinae clades only in GeoSSE. The influence of phenotypic traits on diversification rates was not supported by any method. Ancestral state reconstruction suggested that the ancestor of South American mabuyine was likely viviparous. DISCUSSION Our analyses further corroborated the existence of a transoceanic connection between Africa and South America in the Eocene/Oligocene period (Atlantogea). Following colonization of the isolated South America and subsequent dispersal through the continent by the ancestral mabuyine stock, we detected no difference in macroevolutionary regimes of New World clades. This finding argued against the ecological opportunity model as an explanation for the diversity of living mabuyines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anieli Guirro Pereira
- Department of Genetics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
| | - Carlos G. Schrago
- Department of Genetics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
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Bai M, Nie R, Zhang W, Ren D, Shih C, Yang X. The first fossil Athyreini beetle (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae). ORG DIVERS EVOL 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s13127-016-0292-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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Hofmeyr MD, Vamberger M, Branch W, Schleicher A, Daniels SR. Tortoise (Reptilia, Testudinidae) radiations in Southern Africa from the Eocene to the present. ZOOL SCR 2016. [DOI: 10.1111/zsc.12223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Margaretha D. Hofmeyr
- Chelonian Biodiversity and Conservation; Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology; University of the Western Cape; Private Bag X17 Bellville 7535 South Africa
| | - Melita Vamberger
- Museum of Zoology; Senckenberg Dresden; A. B. Meyer Building 01109 Dresden Germany
| | - William Branch
- Department of Herpetology; Port Elizabeth Museum; P.O. Box 13147 Humewood 6013 South Africa
- Department of Zoology; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University; P.O. Box 77000 Port Elizabeth 6031 South Africa
| | | | - Savel R. Daniels
- Department of Botany and Zoology; University of Stellenbosch; Private Bag X1 Matieland 7602 South Africa
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Abstract
The present-day distribution of velvet worms corresponds neatly to the ancient supercontinent Gondwana - except for a puzzling outpost in southeast Asia. Jaw-dropping new fossil material now establishes when and how peripatid onychophorans reached this isolated spot.
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Oliveira I, Bai M, Jahn H, Gross V, Martin C, Hammel J, Zhang W, Mayer G. Earliest Onychophoran in Amber Reveals Gondwanan Migration Patterns. Curr Biol 2016; 26:2594-2601. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.07.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2016] [Revised: 07/07/2016] [Accepted: 07/12/2016] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Apesteguía S, Smith ND, Juárez Valieri R, Makovicky PJ. An Unusual New Theropod with a Didactyl Manus from the Upper Cretaceous of Patagonia, Argentina. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0157793. [PMID: 27410683 PMCID: PMC4943716 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157793] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2015] [Accepted: 06/02/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Late Cretaceous terrestrial strata of the Neuquén Basin, northern Patagonia, Argentina have yielded a rich fauna of dinosaurs and other vertebrates. The diversity of saurischian dinosaurs is particularly high, especially in the late Cenomanian-early Turonian Huincul Formation, which has yielded specimens of rebacchisaurid and titanosaurian sauropods, and abelisaurid and carcharodontosaurid theropods. Continued sampling is adding to the known vertebrate diversity of this unit. METHODOLOGY/ PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A new, partially articulated mid-sized theropod was found in rocks from the Huincul Formation. It exhibits a unique combination of traits that distinguish it from other known theropods justifying erection of a new taxon, Gualicho shinyae gen. et sp. nov. Gualicho possesses a didactyl manus with the third digit reduced to a metacarpal splint reminiscent of tyrannosaurids, but both phylogenetic and multivariate analyses indicate that didactyly is convergent in these groups. Derived characters of the scapula, femur, and fibula supports the new theropod as the sister taxon of the nearly coeval African theropod Deltadromeus and as a neovenatorid carcharodontosaurian. A number of these features are independently present in ceratosaurs, and Gualicho exhibits an unusual mosaic of ceratosaurian and tetanuran synapomorphies distributed throughout the skeleton. CONCLUSIONS/ SIGNIFICANCE Gualicho shinyae gen. et sp. nov. increases the known theropod diversity of the Huincul Formation and also represents the first likely neovenatorid from this unit. It is the most basal tetatanuran to exhibit common patterns of digit III reduction that evolved independently in a number of other tetanuran lineages. A close relationship with Deltadromaeus from the Kem Kem beds of Niger adds to the already considerable biogeographic similarity between the Huincul Formation and coeval rock units in North Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastián Apesteguía
- Área de Paleontología. Fundación de Historia Natural 'Félix de Azara', CEBBAD, Univ. Maimónides, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Nathan D. Smith
- Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, United States of America
| | - Rubén Juárez Valieri
- Secretaría de Cultura, Gobierno de la Provincia de Río Negro, General Roca, Argentina
| | - Peter J. Makovicky
- Section of Earth Sciences, Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Boyd CA. The systematic relationships and biogeographic history of ornithischian dinosaurs. PeerJ 2015; 3:e1523. [PMID: 26713260 PMCID: PMC4690359 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.1523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2015] [Accepted: 11/30/2015] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The systematic relationships of taxa traditionally referred to as 'basal ornithopods' or 'hypsilophodontids' remain poorly resolved since it was discovered that these taxa are not a monophyletic group, but rather a paraphyletic set of neornithischian taxa. Thus, even as the known diversity of these taxa has dramatically increased over the past two decades, our knowledge of their placement relative to each other and the major ornithischian subclades remained incomplete. This study employs the largest phylogenetic dataset yet compiled to assess basal ornithischian relationships (255 characters for 65 species level terminal taxa). The resulting strict consensus tree is the most well-resolved, stratigraphically consistent hypothesis of basal ornithischian relationships yet hypothesized. The only non-iguanodontian ornithopod (=basal ornithopod) recovered in this analysis is Hypsilophodon foxii. The majority of former 'hypsilophodontid' taxa are recovered within a single clade (Parksosauridae) that is situated as the sister-taxon to Cerapoda. The Parksosauridae is divided between two subclades, the Orodrominae and the Thescelosaurinae. This study does not recover a clade consisting of the Asian taxa Changchunsaurus, Haya, and Jeholosaurus (=Jeholosauridae). Rather, the former two taxa are recovered as basal members of Thescelosaurinae, while the latter taxon is recovered in a clade with Yueosaurus near the base of Neornithischia.The endemic South American clade Elasmaria is recovered within the Thescelosaurinae as the sister taxon to Thescelosaurus. This study supports the origination of Dinosauria and the early diversification of Ornithischia within Gondwana. Neornithischia first arose in Africa by the Early Jurassic before dispersing to Asia before the late Middle Jurassic, where much of the diversification among non-cerapodan neornithischians occurred. Under the simplest scenario the Parksosauridae originated in North America, with at least two later dispersals to Asia and one to South America. However, when ghost lineages are considered, an alternate dispersal hypothesis has thescelosaurines dispersing from Asia into South America (via North America) during the Early Cretaceous, then back into North America in the latest Cretaceous. The latter hypothesis may explain the dominance of orodromine taxa prior to the Maastrichtian in North America and the sudden appearance and wide distribution of thescelosaurines in North America beginning in the early Maastrichtian. While the diversity of parksosaurids has greatly increased over the last fifteen years, a ghost lineage of over 40 myr is present between the base of Parksosauridae and Cerapoda, indicating that much of the early history and diversity of this clade is yet to be discovered. This new phylogenetic hypothesis provides a comprehensive framework for testing further hypotheses regarding evolutionary patterns and processes within Ornithischia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clint A. Boyd
- North Dakota Geological Survey, Bismarck, ND, United States
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Lin Y, Wong WO, Shi G, Shen S, Li Z. Bilobate leaves of Bauhinia (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae, Cercideae) from the middle Miocene of Fujian Province, southeastern China and their biogeographic implications. BMC Evol Biol 2015; 15:252. [PMID: 26572133 PMCID: PMC4647482 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-015-0540-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2015] [Accepted: 11/10/2015] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies suggest that the pantropical genus Bauhinia L. s.l. (Bauhiniinae, Cercideae, Leguminosae) is paraphyletic and may as well be subdivided into nine genera, including Bauhinia L. s.s. and its allies. Their leaves are usually characteristic bilobate and are thus easily recognized in the fossil record. This provides the opportunity to understand the early evolution, diversification, and biogeographic history of orchid trees from an historical perspective under the framework of morphological and molecular studies. RESULTS The taxonomy, distribution, and leaf architecture of Bauhinia and its allies across the world are summarized in detail, which formed the basis for classifying the bilobate leaf fossils and evaluating the fossil record and biogeography of Bauhinia. Two species of Bauhinia are described from the middle Miocene Fotan Group of Fujian Province, southeastern China. Bauhinia ungulatoides sp. nov. is characterized by shallowly to moderately bilobate, pulvinate leaves with shallowly cordate bases and acute apices on each lobe, as well as paracytic stomatal complexes. Bauhinia fotana F.M.B. Jacques et al. emend. possesses moderately bilobate, pulvinate leaves with moderately to deeply cordate bases and acute or slightly obtuse apices on each lobe. CONCLUSIONS Bilobate leaf fossils Bauhinia ungulatoides and B. fotana together with other late Paleogene - early Neogene Chinese record of the genus suggest that Bauhinia had been diverse in South China by the late Paleogene. Their great similarities to some species from South America and South Asia respectively imply that Bauhinia might have undergone extensive dispersals and diversification during or before the Miocene. The fossil record, extant species diversity, as well as molecular phylogenetic analyses demonstrate that the Bauhiniinae might have originated in the Paleogene of low-latitudes along the eastern Tethys Seaway. They dispersed southwards into Africa, migrated from Eurasia to North America via the North Atlantic Land Bridge or floating islands during the Oligocene. Then the genus spread into South America probably via the Isthmus of Panama since the Miocene onward, and underwent regional extinctions in the Boreotropics of mid-high-latitudes during the Neogene climatic cooling. Hence, Bauhinia presently exhibits a pantropical intercontinental disjunct distribution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanxiang Lin
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, P.R. China. .,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P.R. China.
| | - William Oki Wong
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, P.R. China.
| | - Gongle Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing, 210008, P.R. China.
| | - Si Shen
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, P.R. China.
| | - Zhenyu Li
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, P.R. China.
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Ősi A, Rabi M, Makádi L. An enigmatic crocodyliform tooth from the bauxites of western Hungary suggests hidden mesoeucrocodylian diversity in the Early Cretaceous European archipelago. PeerJ 2015; 3:e1160. [PMID: 26339542 PMCID: PMC4558076 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.1160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2015] [Accepted: 07/17/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Background. The Cretaceous of southern Europe was characterized by an archipelago setting with faunas of mixed composition of endemic, Laurasian and Gondwanan elements. However, little is known about the relative timing of these faunal influences. The Lower Cretaceous of East-Central Europe holds a great promise for understanding the biogeographic history of Cretaceous European biotas because of the former proximity of the area to Gondwana (as part of the Apulian microcontinent). However, East-Central European vertebrates are typically poorly known from this time period. Here, we report on a ziphodont crocodyliform tooth discovered in the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Alsópere Bauxite Formation of Olaszfalu, western Hungary. Methods. The morphology of the tooth is described and compared with that of other similar Cretaceous crocodyliforms. Results. Based on the triangular, slightly distally curved, constricted and labiolingually flattened crown, the small, subequal-sized true serrations on the carinae mesially and distally, the longitudinal fluting labially, and the extended shelves along the carinae lingually the tooth is most similar to some peirosaurid, non-baurusuchian sebecosuchian, and uruguaysuchid notosuchians. In addition, the paralligatorid Wannchampsus also possesses similar anterior teeth, thus the Hungarian tooth is referred here to Mesoeucrocodylia indet. Discussion. Supposing a notosuchian affinity, this tooth is the earliest occurrence of the group in Europe and one of the earliest in Laurasia. In case of a paralligatorid relationship the Hungarian tooth would represent their first European record, further expanding their cosmopolitan distribution. In any case, the ziphodont tooth from the Albian bauxite deposit of western Hungary belongs to a group still unknown from the Early Cretaceous European archipelago and therefore implies a hidden diversity of crocodyliforms in the area.
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Affiliation(s)
- Attila Ősi
- Department of Paleontology, Eötvös University , Budapest , Hungary ; MTA-ELTE Lendület Dinosaur Research Group , Budapest , Hungary
| | - Márton Rabi
- Department of Paleontology, Eötvös University , Budapest , Hungary ; MTA-ELTE Lendület Dinosaur Research Group , Budapest , Hungary ; Institute of Geosciences, University of Tübingen , Tübingen , Germany
| | - László Makádi
- Department of Paleontology, Eötvös University , Budapest , Hungary ; Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary , Budapest , Hungary
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Upchurch P, Andres B, Butler RJ, Barrett PM. An analysis of pterosaurian biogeography: implications for the evolutionary history and fossil record quality of the first flying vertebrates. HISTORICAL BIOLOGY 2015; 27:697-717. [PMID: 26339122 PMCID: PMC4536946 DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2014.939077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2014] [Revised: 06/10/2014] [Accepted: 06/24/2014] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
The biogeographical history of pterosaurs has received very little treatment. Here, we present the first quantitative analysis of pterosaurian biogeography based on an event-based parsimony method (Treefitter). This approach was applied to a phylogenetic tree comprising the relationships of 108 in-group pterosaurian taxa, spanning the full range of this clade's stratigraphical and geographical extent. The results indicate that there is no support for the impact of vicariance or coherent dispersal on pterosaurian distributions. However, this group does display greatly elevated levels of sympatry. Although sampling biases and taxonomic problems might have artificially elevated the occurrence of sympatry, we argue that our results probably reflect a genuine biogeographical signal. We propose a novel model to explain pterosaurian distributions: pterosaurs underwent a series of 'sweep-stakes' dispersal events (across oceanic barriers in most cases), resulting in the founding of sympatric clusters of taxa. Examination of the spatiotemporal distributions of pterosaurian occurrences indicates that their fossil record is extremely patchy. Thus, while there is likely to be genuine information on pterosaurian diversity and biogeographical patterns in the current data-set, caution is required in its interpretation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Upchurch
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, LondonWC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Brian Andres
- Department of Geology, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, SCA528, Tampa, FL33630, USA
| | - Richard J. Butler
- School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, BirminghamB15 2TT, UK
| | - Paul M. Barrett
- Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, LondonSW7 5BD, UK
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Cannatella D. Xenopus in Space and Time: Fossils, Node Calibrations, Tip-Dating, and Paleobiogeography. Cytogenet Genome Res 2015; 145:283-301. [PMID: 26279165 DOI: 10.1159/000438910] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Published data from DNA sequences, morphology of 11 extant and 15 extinct frog taxa, and stratigraphic ranges of fossils were integrated to open a window into the deep-time evolution of Xenopus. The ages and morphological characters of fossils were used as independent datasets to calibrate a chronogram. We found that DNA sequences, either alone or in combination with morphological data and fossils, tended to support a close relationship between Xenopus and Hymenochirus, although in some analyses this topology was not significantly better than the Pipa + Hymenochirus topology. Analyses that excluded DNA data found strong support for the Pipa + Hymenochirus tree. The criterion for selecting the maximum age of the calibration prior influenced the age estimates, and our age estimates of early divergences in the tree of frogs are substantially younger than those of published studies. Node-dating and tip-dating calibrations, either alone or in combination, yielded older dates for nodes than did a root calibration alone. Our estimates of divergence times indicate that overwater dispersal, rather than vicariance due to the splitting of Africa and South America, may explain the presence of Xenopus in Africa and its closest fossil relatives in South America.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Cannatella
- Department of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Collections, University of Texas, Austin, Tex., USA
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