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Palaeoecological inferences for the fossil Australian snakes Yurlunggur and Wonambi (Serpentes, Madtsoiidae)
Madtsoiids are among the most basal snakes, with a fossil record dating back to the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian). Most representatives went extinct by the end of the Eocene, but some survived in Australia until the Late Cenozoic. Yurlunggur and Wonambi are two of these late forms, and also the best...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society Publishing
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5882723/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29657799 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172012 |
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author | Palci, Alessandro Hutchinson, Mark N. Caldwell, Michael W. Scanlon, John D. Lee, Michael S. Y. |
author_facet | Palci, Alessandro Hutchinson, Mark N. Caldwell, Michael W. Scanlon, John D. Lee, Michael S. Y. |
author_sort | Palci, Alessandro |
collection | PubMed |
description | Madtsoiids are among the most basal snakes, with a fossil record dating back to the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian). Most representatives went extinct by the end of the Eocene, but some survived in Australia until the Late Cenozoic. Yurlunggur and Wonambi are two of these late forms, and also the best-known madtsoiids to date. A better understanding of the anatomy and palaeoecology of these taxa may shed light on the evolution and extinction of this poorly known group of snakes and on early snake evolution in general. A digital endocast of the inner ear of Yurlunggur was compared to those of 81 species of snakes and lizards with known ecological preferences using three-dimensional geometric morphometrics. The inner ear of Yurlunggur most closely resembles both that of certain semiaquatic snakes and that of some semifossorial snakes. Other cranial and postcranial features of this snake support the semifossorial interpretation. While the digital endocast of the inner ear of Wonambi is too incomplete to be included in a geometric morphometrics study, its preserved morphology is very different from that of Yurlunggur and suggests a more generalist ecology. Osteology, palaeoclimatic data and the palaeobiogeographic distribution of these two snakes are all consistent with these inferred ecological differences. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5882723 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | The Royal Society Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-58827232018-04-13 Palaeoecological inferences for the fossil Australian snakes Yurlunggur and Wonambi (Serpentes, Madtsoiidae) Palci, Alessandro Hutchinson, Mark N. Caldwell, Michael W. Scanlon, John D. Lee, Michael S. Y. R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) Madtsoiids are among the most basal snakes, with a fossil record dating back to the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian). Most representatives went extinct by the end of the Eocene, but some survived in Australia until the Late Cenozoic. Yurlunggur and Wonambi are two of these late forms, and also the best-known madtsoiids to date. A better understanding of the anatomy and palaeoecology of these taxa may shed light on the evolution and extinction of this poorly known group of snakes and on early snake evolution in general. A digital endocast of the inner ear of Yurlunggur was compared to those of 81 species of snakes and lizards with known ecological preferences using three-dimensional geometric morphometrics. The inner ear of Yurlunggur most closely resembles both that of certain semiaquatic snakes and that of some semifossorial snakes. Other cranial and postcranial features of this snake support the semifossorial interpretation. While the digital endocast of the inner ear of Wonambi is too incomplete to be included in a geometric morphometrics study, its preserved morphology is very different from that of Yurlunggur and suggests a more generalist ecology. Osteology, palaeoclimatic data and the palaeobiogeographic distribution of these two snakes are all consistent with these inferred ecological differences. The Royal Society Publishing 2018-03-14 /pmc/articles/PMC5882723/ /pubmed/29657799 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172012 Text en © 2018 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Biology (Whole Organism) Palci, Alessandro Hutchinson, Mark N. Caldwell, Michael W. Scanlon, John D. Lee, Michael S. Y. Palaeoecological inferences for the fossil Australian snakes Yurlunggur and Wonambi (Serpentes, Madtsoiidae) |
title | Palaeoecological inferences for the fossil Australian snakes Yurlunggur and Wonambi (Serpentes, Madtsoiidae) |
title_full | Palaeoecological inferences for the fossil Australian snakes Yurlunggur and Wonambi (Serpentes, Madtsoiidae) |
title_fullStr | Palaeoecological inferences for the fossil Australian snakes Yurlunggur and Wonambi (Serpentes, Madtsoiidae) |
title_full_unstemmed | Palaeoecological inferences for the fossil Australian snakes Yurlunggur and Wonambi (Serpentes, Madtsoiidae) |
title_short | Palaeoecological inferences for the fossil Australian snakes Yurlunggur and Wonambi (Serpentes, Madtsoiidae) |
title_sort | palaeoecological inferences for the fossil australian snakes yurlunggur and wonambi (serpentes, madtsoiidae) |
topic | Biology (Whole Organism) |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5882723/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29657799 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172012 |
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