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Chen J, Bever GS, Yi HY, Norell MA. A burrowing frog from the late Paleocene of Mongolia uncovers a deep history of spadefoot toads (Pelobatoidea) in East Asia. Sci Rep 2016; 6:19209. [PMID: 26750105 PMCID: PMC4707494 DOI: 10.1038/srep19209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2015] [Accepted: 12/07/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Fossils are indispensible in understanding the evolutionary origins of the modern fauna. Crown-group spadefoot toads (Anura: Pelobatoidea) are the best-known fossorial frog clade to inhabit arid environments, with species utilizing a characteristic bony spade on their foot for burrowing. Endemic to the Northern Hemisphere, they are distributed across the Holarctic except East Asia. Here we report a rare fossil of a crown-group spadefoot toad from the late Paleocene of Mongolia. The phylogenetic analysis using both morphological and molecular information recovered this Asian fossil inside the modern North American pelobatoid clade Scaphiopodidae. The presence of a spade and the phylogenetic position of the new fossil frog strongly support its burrowing behavior. The late Paleocene age and other information suggestive of a mild climate cast doubt on the conventional assertion that burrowing evolved as an adaptation to aridity in spadefoot toads. Temporally and geographically, the new fossil provides the earliest record of Scaphiopodidae worldwide, and the only member of the group in Asia. Quantitative biogeographic analysis suggests that Scaphiopodidae, despite originating in North America, dispersed into East Asia via Beringia in the Early Cenozoic. The absence of spadefoot toads in East Asia today is a result of extinction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianye Chen
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, New York 10025.,Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York 10024
| | - Gaberiel S Bever
- Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York 10024.,Department of Anatomy, New York Institute of Technology, College of Osteopathic Medicine, New York 11568
| | - Hong-Yu Yi
- School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JW
| | - Mark A Norell
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, New York 10025.,Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York 10024
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Abstract
Diadectomorpha is a clade of Late Palaeozoic vertebrates widely recognized as the sister group of crown-group Amniota and the first tetrapod lineage to evolve high-fibre herbivory. Despite their evolutionary importance, diadectomorphs are restricted stratigraphically and geographically, with all records being from the Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian of North America and Germany. We describe a new diadectomorph, Alveusdectes fenestralis, based on a partial skull from the Upper Permian of China. The new species exhibits the derived mechanism for herbivory and is recovered phylogenetically as a deeply nested diadectid. Approximately 16 Myr younger than any other diadectomorph, Alveusdectes is the product of at least a 46 Myr ghost lineage. How much of this time was probably spent in Russia and/or central Asia will remain unclear until a specimen is described that subdivides this cryptic history, but the lineage assuredly crossed this region before entering the relatively isolated continent of North China. The discovery of Alveusdectes raises important questions regarding diadectomorph extinction dynamics including what, if any, ecological factors limited the diversity of this group in eastern Pangea. It also suggests that increased sampling in Asia will likely significantly affect our views of clade and faunal insularity leading up to the Permo-Triassic extinction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Liu
- 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, People's Republic of China
| | - G S Bever
- College of Osteopathic Medicine, New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, NY 11568, USA
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Lyson TR, Schachner ER, Botha-Brink J, Scheyer TM, Lambertz M, Bever GS, Rubidge BS, de Queiroz K. Origin of the unique ventilatory apparatus of turtles. Nat Commun 2014; 5:5211. [PMID: 25376734 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6211] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2014] [Accepted: 09/10/2014] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The turtle body plan differs markedly from that of other vertebrates and serves as a model system for studying structural and developmental evolution. Incorporation of the ribs into the turtle shell negates the costal movements that effect lung ventilation in other air-breathing amniotes. Instead, turtles have a unique abdominal-muscle-based ventilatory apparatus whose evolutionary origins have remained mysterious. Here we show through broadly comparative anatomical and histological analyses that an early member of the turtle stem lineage has several turtle-specific ventilation characters: rigid ribcage, inferred loss of intercostal muscles and osteological correlates of the primary expiratory muscle. Our results suggest that the ventilation mechanism of turtles evolved through a division of labour between the ribs and muscles of the trunk in which the abdominal muscles took on the primary ventilatory function, whereas the broadened ribs became the primary means of stabilizing the trunk. These changes occurred approximately 50 million years before the evolution of the fully ossified shell.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tyler R Lyson
- 1] Department of Earth Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, Colorado 80205, USA [2] Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20560, USA [3] Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, PO Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Emma R Schachner
- 1] Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA [2] Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA
| | - Jennifer Botha-Brink
- 1] Karoo Palaeontology, National Museum, Box 266, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa [2] Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
| | - Torsten M Scheyer
- Paläontologisches Institut und Museum, Universität Zürich, Karl Schmid-Strasse 4, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Markus Lambertz
- Institut für Zoologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - G S Bever
- 1] Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, PO Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa [2] New York Institute of Technology, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Old Westbury, New York 11568, USA [3] Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York 10024, USA
| | - Bruce S Rubidge
- Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, PO Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Kevin de Queiroz
- Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20560, USA
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