Paludidraco

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Paludidraco
Temporal range: Late Triassic, Carnian–Norian
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Sauropterygia
Order: Nothosauroidea
Family: Simosauridae
Genus: Paludidraco
de Miguel Chaves et al., 2018
Species:
P. multidentatus
Binomial name
Paludidraco multidentatus
de Miguel Chaves et al., 2018

Paludidraco is a nothosaur belonging to the Simosauridae from the Late Triassic of Spain. [1] It includes one species, Paludidraco multidentatus. Paludidraco is thought to possibly have been a filter-feeding marine reptile, and was about 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) long. The holotype, MUPA-ATZ0101, consists of one relatively complete skull and partial postcranial skeleton and one partial skull and mandibles, were found in the El Atance site in Guadalajara, Central Spain at the Keuper Facies horizon, the border of the Carnian and Norian periods of the Triassic. [1]

Contents

Description

Paludidraco was similar to its close relatives Simosaurus , [2] but differed in several important respects. The teeth were pleurodont and it had more than 15 premaxillary teeth, hence the species name multidentatus meaning 'many-toothed'. It had a relatively long snout, but the nostrils were higher up on its head than those of Simosaurus. The upper temporal fenestra is narrow, and the pineal foramen is highly elongated. The supraoccipital is horizontally sutured with the parietal and exposed at the posterior end of the parietal table. The jaws are very slender and fragile, quite bowed, and with the teeth situated laterally. There are very many teeth, all small, recurved and flattened sideways. The vertebral centra are amphicoelous and the zygapophyses are pachyostotic. The ribs are pachyostotic and strongly distally expanded. [1]

Palaeoecology

Paludidraco, like all nothosaurs, would have been mainly aquatic but able to come on land for short periods. It would not have been able to capture live prey, as its jaws were too fragile except for very small animals which could offer no resistance, and its robust pachyostotic postcranial skeleton would have made it unmanoeuvrable. Its many small teeth create a comb-like structure which would be suitable for filter-feeding, and its bowed jaws could have taken in large volumes of water for filtering, but it did not have an especially elongated rostrum or very large jaws, as modern baleen whales do, suggesting that it would have been unable to 'suspension feed' in midwater with shoals of crustaceans or plankton. [1]

Paludidraco's small teeth and weak jaws would probably have also been inadequate for eating many marine plants, but it might have been able to scrape off soft vegetable matter from plants on the sea floor. The pachyostotic skeleton, similar to that seen in modern sirenians, would have made Paludidraco slow and unmanoeuvrable, but would have given it neutral buoyancy and so enabled it to hover near the sea floor while expending very little energy. It has therefore been proposed that Paludidraco swam slowly along the seabed, or possibly even walked along it, eating soft vegetable matter. [1] Alternatively, it could have taken mouthfuls of silt or sand from the seabed and shaken its head from side to side to filter out the small crustaceans or worms living in the sediment, in a similar way to modern grey whales. This would explain its apparent ability to filter but not to 'suspension feed', while the pachyostotic skeleton would have made this a very low-energy lifestyle. It is also possible that it could have eaten both vegetable and animal matter in the ways proposed.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filter feeder</span> Animals that feed by straining food from water

Filter feeders are aquatic animals that acquire nutrients by feeding on organic matters, food particles or smaller organisms suspended in water, typically by having the water pass over or through a specialized filtering organ that sieves out and/or traps solids. Filter feeders can play an important role in condensing biomass and removing excess nutrients from the local waterbody, and are therefore considered water-cleaning ecosystem engineers. They are also important in bioaccumulation and, as a result, as indicator organisms.

<i>Lesothosaurus</i> Extinct genus of ornithischian dinosaur

Lesothosaurus is a monospecific genus of ornithischian dinosaur that lived during the Early Jurassic in what is now South Africa and Lesotho. It was named by paleontologist Peter Galton in 1978, the name meaning "lizard from Lesotho". The genus has only one valid species, Lesothosaurus diagnosticus. Lesothosaurus is one of the most completely-known early ornithischians, based on numerous skull and postcranial fossils from the Upper Elliot Formation. It had a simpler tooth and jaw anatomy than later ornithischians, and may have been omnivorous in some parts of the year.

<i>Placodus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Placodus is an extinct genus of marine reptiles belonging to the order Placodontia, which swam in the shallow seas of the middle Triassic period. Fossils of Placodus have been found in Central Europe and China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nothosaur</span> Extinct order of reptiles

Nothosaurs were Triassic marine sauropterygian reptiles. They averaged about 3 metres (10 ft) in length, with a long body and tail. The feet were paddle-like, and are known to have been webbed in life, to help power the animal when swimming. The neck was quite long, and the head was elongated and flattened, and relatively small in relation to the body. The margins of the long jaws were equipped with numerous sharp outward-pointing teeth, indicating a diet of fish and squid.

<i>Pterodaustro</i> Genus of ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous

Pterodaustro is a genus of ctenochasmatid pterodactyloid pterosaur from South America. Its fossil remains dated back to the Early Cretaceous period, about 105 million years ago.

<i>Mesosaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptile from the early Permian of South Africa

Mesosaurus is an extinct genus of reptile from the Early Permian of southern Africa and South America. Along with it, the genera Brazilosaurus and Stereosternum, it is a member of the family Mesosauridae and the order Mesosauria. Mesosaurus was long thought to have been one of the first marine reptiles, although new data suggests that at least those of Uruguay inhabited a hypersaline water body, rather than a typical marine environment. In any case, it had many adaptations to a fully aquatic lifestyle. It is usually considered to have been anapsid, although Friedrich von Huene considered it to be a synapsid. Recent study of Mesosauridae phylogeny places the group as either the basal most clade within Parareptilia or the basal most clade within Sauropsida despite the skull of Mesosaurus possessing the "Synapsid condition" of one temporal fenestra.

<i>Lariosaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Lariosaurus is an extinct genus of nothosaurid from the Middle Triassic of central and western Europe and China. With a complete specimen of L. xingyiensis measuring 70.5 cm (2.3 ft) long and L. hongguoensis possibly measuring up to 80 cm (2.6 ft) long, it was one of the smallest known nothosaurs. First discovered at Perledo on the Lake Como in 1830, it was named in 1847 by Curioni, its name meaning "Lizard from Larius", the ancient name of the lake. This makes it one of the earliest studied reptiles from the Alps. It is known from an almost complete skeleton holotype and several other fairly complete fossils.

<i>Qianosuchus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Qianosuchus is an extinct genus of aquatic poposauroid archosaur from the middle Triassic (Anisian) Guanling Formation of Pan County, China. It is represented by two nearly complete skeletons and a crushed skull preserved in the limestone. Qianosuchus was at least 3 metres long, and had several skeletal adaptations which indicate a semi-marine lifestyle, similar to modern-day saltwater crocodiles. These adaptations have not been seen in any other archosaur from the Triassic.

<i>Birgeria</i> Extinct genus of fishes

Birgeria is a genus of carnivorous marine ray-finned fish from the Triassic period. Birgeria had a global distribution, with fossil known from Madagascar, Spitsbergen, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, China, Russia, Canada and Nevada, United States. The oldest fossils are from Griesbachian aged beds of the Wordie Creek Formation of East Greenland. Birgeria existed throughout the entire Triassic period, from the very beginning just after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, up to the very end with its extinction during the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction.

<i>Besanosaurus</i> Genus of Triassic ichthyosaur

Besanosaurus is a extinct genus of Middle Triassic ichthyosaur from Monte San Giorgio of Italy and Switzerland, containing the single species B. leptorhynchus. Besanosaurus was named by Cristiano Dal Sasso and Giovanni Pinna in 1996, based on the nearly complete flattened skeleton BES SC 999, the holotype specimen. This skeleton is preserved across multiple thin rock slabs spanning 3.5 by 4 metres when assembled and took thousands of hours to prepare. Additional specimens from Monte San Giorgio that have previously been considered separate genera, including a partial skull named Mikadocephalus and a well-preserved, largely complete skeleton, have been reinterpreted as additional specimens of Besanosaurus. Putative specimens of Besanosaurus have been discovered in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and Germany, although their attribution to this genus remains disputed.

<i>Gephyrosaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Gephyrosaurus is an extinct genus of lepidosaurian reptile known from the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic of the United Kingdom. It is generally considered to be one of the most primitive members of the clade Rhynchocephalia.

<i>Simosaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Simosaurus is an extinct genus of marine reptile within the superorder Sauropterygia from the Middle Triassic of central Europe. Fossils have been found in deposits in France and Germany that are roughly 230 million years old. It is usually classified as a nothosaur, but has also been considered a pachypleurosaur or a more primitive form of sauropterygian.

Dianopachysaurus is an extinct genus of pachypleurosaur known from the lower Middle Triassic of Yunnan Province, southwestern China. It was found in the Middle Triassic Lagerstätte of the Guanling Formation. It was first named by Jun Liu, Olivier Rieppel, Da-Yong Jiang, Jonathan C. Aitchison, Ryosuke Motani, Qi-Yue Zhang, Chang-Yong Zhou and Yuan-Yuan Sun in 2011 and the type species is Dianopachysaurus dingi, thanking a Professor Ding for his help.

<i>Teraterpeton</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Teraterpeton is an extinct genus of trilophosaurid archosauromorphs. It is known from a partial skeleton from the Late Triassic Wolfville Formation of Nova Scotia, described in 2003. It has many unique features seen in no other related form, including an elongated, toothless snout and large openings for the nostrils. Because of this, Teraterpeton was originally placed in its own family, Teraterpetidae, related to Trilophosaurus. Newer studies generally place it within Trilophosauridae.

<i>Diandongosuchus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Diandongosuchus is an extinct genus of archosauriform reptile, possibly a member of the Phytosauria, known from the Middle Triassic of China. The type species Diandongosuchus fuyuanensis was named in 2012 from the Zhuganpo Formation of Yunnan Province. It is a marine species that shows similarities with another Chinese Triassic species called Qianosuchus mixtus, although it has fewer adaptations toward marine life. It was originally classified as the basal-most member of the pseudosuchian clade Poposauroidea. However, a subsequent study conducted by Stocker et al. indicated it to be the basalmost known phytosaur instead.

Qianxisaurus is an extinct genus of pachypleurosaur or alternatively a basal eosauropterygian known from the Middle Triassic of Guizhou Province, southwestern China. It contains a single species, Qianxisaurus chajiangensis.

<i>Atopodentatus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Atopodentatus is an extinct genus of basal sauropterygian known from the early Middle Triassic (Anisian) of Guanling Formation in Luoping County, Yunnan Province, southwestern China. It contains a single species, Atopodentatus unicus. It is thought to have lived between 247 and 240 million years ago, during the Middle Triassic period, about six million years after the Permian extinction. Atopodentatus was an herbivorous marine reptile, although marine reptiles are usually omnivores or carnivores.

<i>Cartorhynchus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Cartorhynchus is an extinct genus of early ichthyosauriform marine reptile that lived during the Early Triassic epoch, about 248 million years ago. The genus contains a single species, Cartorhynchus lenticarpus, named in 2014 by Ryosuke Motani and colleagues from a single nearly-complete skeleton found near Chaohu, Anhui Province, China. Along with its close relative Sclerocormus, Cartorhynchus was part of a diversification of marine reptiles that occurred suddenly during the Spathian substage, soon after the devastating Permian-Triassic extinction event, but they were subsequently driven to extinction by volcanism and sea level changes by the Middle Triassic.

<i>Silvestrosaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Silvestrosaurus is an extinct aquatic genus of lariosaurine nothosaurid sauropterygian known from the Middle Triassic of Monte San Giorgio, southern Switzerland. It contains a single species, Silvestrosaurus buzzii, originally considered to be a species of the closely related Lariosaurus. The species was named by Tschanz in 1989, based solely on the holotype PIMUZ T/2804 comprising the skull, the lower jaw, and a dis-articulated partial postcranial skeleton. Cyamodus hildegardis tooth bearing elements were found in the stomach region of the specimen. The holotype was collected at Punkt 902 of Monte San Giorgio, from layer 97 of the Grenzbitumen zone, dating to the Anisian-Ladinian boundary of the Middle Triassic. Kuhn-Schnyner (1990) reassigned the species to its own genus, creating the combination S. buzzii. The generic name honors a church near the collection locality of the holotype, dedicated to Saint Sylvester, a Pope during the reign of Constantine the Great, and from Greek saurus, meaning "lizard", a common suffix for genus names of extinct reptile.

<i>Ankylorhiza</i> Extinct genus of toothed whales from the Oligocene epoch

Ankylorhiza is an extinct genus of toothed whale that lived in what is now the United States during the Oligocene epoch, between 29 and 23.5 million years ago. The type and only known species is A. tiedemani, though two fossil skeletons may represent an additional, second species within the genus. Ankylorhiza was about 4.8 meters (16 ft) long, with a long, robust skull bearing conical teeth that were angled forwards at the tip of the snout.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Carlos de Miguel Chaves; Francisco Ortega; Adán Pérez-García (2018). "New highly pachyostotic nothosauroid interpreted as a filter-feeding Triassic marine reptile". Biology Letters. 14 (8): 20180130. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2018.0130. PMC   6127125 . PMID   30068541.
  2. Rieppel, O. (1994). "Osteology of Simosaurus gaillardoti and the relationships of stem-group Sauropterygia". Fieldiana Geology. 28: 1–85.