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The earliest herbivorous marine reptile and its remarkable jaw apparatus

Newly discovered fossils of the Middle Triassic reptile Atopodentatus unicus call for a radical reassessment of its feeding behavior. The skull displays a pronounced hammerhead shape that was hitherto unknown. The long, straight anterior edges of both upper and lower jaws were lined with batteries o...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chun, Li, Rieppel, Olivier, Long, Cheng, Fraser, Nicholas C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4928886/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27386529
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501659
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author Chun, Li
Rieppel, Olivier
Long, Cheng
Fraser, Nicholas C.
author_facet Chun, Li
Rieppel, Olivier
Long, Cheng
Fraser, Nicholas C.
author_sort Chun, Li
collection PubMed
description Newly discovered fossils of the Middle Triassic reptile Atopodentatus unicus call for a radical reassessment of its feeding behavior. The skull displays a pronounced hammerhead shape that was hitherto unknown. The long, straight anterior edges of both upper and lower jaws were lined with batteries of chisel-shaped teeth, whereas the remaining parts of the jaw rami supported densely packed needle-shaped teeth forming a mesh. The evidence indicates a novel feeding mechanism wherein the chisel-shaped teeth were used to scrape algae off the substrate, and the plant matter that was loosened was filtered from the water column through the more posteriorly positioned tooth mesh. This is the oldest record of herbivory within marine reptiles.
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spelling pubmed-49288862016-07-06 The earliest herbivorous marine reptile and its remarkable jaw apparatus Chun, Li Rieppel, Olivier Long, Cheng Fraser, Nicholas C. Sci Adv Research Articles Newly discovered fossils of the Middle Triassic reptile Atopodentatus unicus call for a radical reassessment of its feeding behavior. The skull displays a pronounced hammerhead shape that was hitherto unknown. The long, straight anterior edges of both upper and lower jaws were lined with batteries of chisel-shaped teeth, whereas the remaining parts of the jaw rami supported densely packed needle-shaped teeth forming a mesh. The evidence indicates a novel feeding mechanism wherein the chisel-shaped teeth were used to scrape algae off the substrate, and the plant matter that was loosened was filtered from the water column through the more posteriorly positioned tooth mesh. This is the oldest record of herbivory within marine reptiles. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2016-05-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4928886/ /pubmed/27386529 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501659 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Chun, Li
Rieppel, Olivier
Long, Cheng
Fraser, Nicholas C.
The earliest herbivorous marine reptile and its remarkable jaw apparatus
title The earliest herbivorous marine reptile and its remarkable jaw apparatus
title_full The earliest herbivorous marine reptile and its remarkable jaw apparatus
title_fullStr The earliest herbivorous marine reptile and its remarkable jaw apparatus
title_full_unstemmed The earliest herbivorous marine reptile and its remarkable jaw apparatus
title_short The earliest herbivorous marine reptile and its remarkable jaw apparatus
title_sort earliest herbivorous marine reptile and its remarkable jaw apparatus
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4928886/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27386529
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501659
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