TY - JOUR
T1 - A tiny Triassic saurian from Connecticut and the early evolution of the diapsid feeding apparatus
AU - Pritchard, Adam C.
AU - Gauthier, Jacques A.
AU - Hanson, Michael
AU - Bever, Gabriel S.
AU - Bhullar, Bhart Anjan S.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to R.G. Conrod for originally discovering the specimen in Meriden, CT in 1965 and donating the specimen to the Yale Peabody Museum. Marilyn Fox (YPM VP) further prepared the specimen after the prior publication by ref. 9. We thank C. Mehling and M. Norell (AMNH); A. Henrici (CM); S. Chapman, L. Steel, and P. Barrett (NHMUK); K. de Queiroz and A. Wynn (USNM VZ); J. Cundiff (MCZ); and G. Watkins-Colwell (YPM VZ) for access to curated museum specimens. A. Pritchard is funded by the National Science Foundation (DEB 1501851, BIO 1523871). J.A.G. and B.- A.S.B. received partial financial support from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Funding Information:
We are grateful to R.G. Conrod for originally discovering the specimen in Meriden, CT in 1965 and donating the specimen to the Yale Peabody Museum. Marilyn Fox (YPM VP) further prepared the specimen after the prior publication by ref. 9. We thank C. Mehling and M. Norell (AMNH); A. Henrici (CM); S. Chapman, L. Steel, and P. Barrett (NHMUK); K. de Queiroz and A. Wynn (USNM VZ); J. Cundiff (MCZ); and G. Watkins-Colwell (YPM VZ) for access to curated museum specimens. A. Pritchard is funded by the National Science Foundation (DEB 1501851, BIO 1523871). J.A.G. and B.-A.S.B. received partial financial support from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - Following the Permo-Triassic Extinction, large-bodied diapsid reptiles - with a body length >1 m - rapidly expanded their ecological roles. This diversification is reflected in enormous disparity in the development of the rostrum and adductor chamber. However, it is unclear how marked the diversity of the feeding apparatus was in contemporary small-bodied diapsids. Here we describe the remarkably small skull (2.5 cm long) of a saurian reptile, Colobops noviportensis, gen. et sp. nov., from the Triassic New Haven Arkose of Connecticut, USA. The taxon possesses an exceptionally reinforced snout and strikingly expanded supratemporal fossae for adductor musculature relative to any known Mesozoic or Recent diapsid of similar size. Our phylogenetic analyses support C. noviportensis as an early diverging pan-archosaur. Colobops noviportensis reveals extraordinary disparity of the feeding apparatus in small-bodied early Mesozoic diapsids, and a suite of morphologies, functionally related to a powerful bite, unknown in any small-bodied diapsid.
AB - Following the Permo-Triassic Extinction, large-bodied diapsid reptiles - with a body length >1 m - rapidly expanded their ecological roles. This diversification is reflected in enormous disparity in the development of the rostrum and adductor chamber. However, it is unclear how marked the diversity of the feeding apparatus was in contemporary small-bodied diapsids. Here we describe the remarkably small skull (2.5 cm long) of a saurian reptile, Colobops noviportensis, gen. et sp. nov., from the Triassic New Haven Arkose of Connecticut, USA. The taxon possesses an exceptionally reinforced snout and strikingly expanded supratemporal fossae for adductor musculature relative to any known Mesozoic or Recent diapsid of similar size. Our phylogenetic analyses support C. noviportensis as an early diverging pan-archosaur. Colobops noviportensis reveals extraordinary disparity of the feeding apparatus in small-bodied early Mesozoic diapsids, and a suite of morphologies, functionally related to a powerful bite, unknown in any small-bodied diapsid.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-03508-1
DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-03508-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 29572441
AN - SCOPUS:85044387512
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 9
JO - Nature communications
JF - Nature communications
IS - 1
M1 - 1213
ER -