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A new caimanine alligatorid from the Middle Eocene of Southwest Texas and implications for spatial and temporal shifts in Paleogene crocodyliform diversity

Dramatic early Cenozoic climatic shifts resulted in faunal reorganization on a global scale. Among vertebrates, multiple groups of mammals (e.g., adapiform and omomyiform primates, mesonychids, taeniodonts, dichobunid artiodactyls) are well known from the Western Interior of North America in the war...

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Autores principales: Stocker, Michelle R., Brochu, Christopher A., Kirk, E. Christopher
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7812925/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33520458
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10665
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author Stocker, Michelle R.
Brochu, Christopher A.
Kirk, E. Christopher
author_facet Stocker, Michelle R.
Brochu, Christopher A.
Kirk, E. Christopher
author_sort Stocker, Michelle R.
collection PubMed
description Dramatic early Cenozoic climatic shifts resulted in faunal reorganization on a global scale. Among vertebrates, multiple groups of mammals (e.g., adapiform and omomyiform primates, mesonychids, taeniodonts, dichobunid artiodactyls) are well known from the Western Interior of North America in the warm, greenhouse conditions of the early Eocene, but a dramatic drop in the diversity of these groups, along with the introduction of more dry-tolerant taxa, occurred near the Eocene–Oligocene boundary. Crocodyliforms underwent a striking loss of diversity at this time as well. Pre-Uintan crocodyliform assemblages in the central Western Interior are characterized by multiple taxa, whereas Chadronian assemblages are depauperate with only Alligator prenasalis previously known. Crocodyliform diversity through the intervening Uintan and Duchesnean is not well understood. The middle Eocene Devil’s Graveyard Formation (DGF) of southwest Texas provides new data from southern latitudes during that crucial period. A new specimen from the middle member of the DGF (late Uintan–Duchesnean) is the most complete cranial material of an alligatorid known from Paleogene deposits outside the Western Interior. We identify this specimen as a caimanine based on notched descending laminae of the pterygoids posterior to the choanae and long descending processes of the exoccipitals that are in contact with the basioccipital tubera. Unlike Eocaiman cavernensis, the anterior palatine process is rounded rather than quadrangular. The relationships and age of this new taxon support the hypothesis that the modern distribution of caimanines represents a contraction of a more expansive early Cenozoic distribution. We hypothesize that the range of caimanines tracked shifting warm, humid climatic conditions that contracted latitudinally toward the hothouse-icehouse transition later in the Eocene.
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spelling pubmed-78129252021-01-28 A new caimanine alligatorid from the Middle Eocene of Southwest Texas and implications for spatial and temporal shifts in Paleogene crocodyliform diversity Stocker, Michelle R. Brochu, Christopher A. Kirk, E. Christopher PeerJ Biodiversity Dramatic early Cenozoic climatic shifts resulted in faunal reorganization on a global scale. Among vertebrates, multiple groups of mammals (e.g., adapiform and omomyiform primates, mesonychids, taeniodonts, dichobunid artiodactyls) are well known from the Western Interior of North America in the warm, greenhouse conditions of the early Eocene, but a dramatic drop in the diversity of these groups, along with the introduction of more dry-tolerant taxa, occurred near the Eocene–Oligocene boundary. Crocodyliforms underwent a striking loss of diversity at this time as well. Pre-Uintan crocodyliform assemblages in the central Western Interior are characterized by multiple taxa, whereas Chadronian assemblages are depauperate with only Alligator prenasalis previously known. Crocodyliform diversity through the intervening Uintan and Duchesnean is not well understood. The middle Eocene Devil’s Graveyard Formation (DGF) of southwest Texas provides new data from southern latitudes during that crucial period. A new specimen from the middle member of the DGF (late Uintan–Duchesnean) is the most complete cranial material of an alligatorid known from Paleogene deposits outside the Western Interior. We identify this specimen as a caimanine based on notched descending laminae of the pterygoids posterior to the choanae and long descending processes of the exoccipitals that are in contact with the basioccipital tubera. Unlike Eocaiman cavernensis, the anterior palatine process is rounded rather than quadrangular. The relationships and age of this new taxon support the hypothesis that the modern distribution of caimanines represents a contraction of a more expansive early Cenozoic distribution. We hypothesize that the range of caimanines tracked shifting warm, humid climatic conditions that contracted latitudinally toward the hothouse-icehouse transition later in the Eocene. PeerJ Inc. 2021-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7812925/ /pubmed/33520458 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10665 Text en © 2021 Stocker et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Biodiversity
Stocker, Michelle R.
Brochu, Christopher A.
Kirk, E. Christopher
A new caimanine alligatorid from the Middle Eocene of Southwest Texas and implications for spatial and temporal shifts in Paleogene crocodyliform diversity
title A new caimanine alligatorid from the Middle Eocene of Southwest Texas and implications for spatial and temporal shifts in Paleogene crocodyliform diversity
title_full A new caimanine alligatorid from the Middle Eocene of Southwest Texas and implications for spatial and temporal shifts in Paleogene crocodyliform diversity
title_fullStr A new caimanine alligatorid from the Middle Eocene of Southwest Texas and implications for spatial and temporal shifts in Paleogene crocodyliform diversity
title_full_unstemmed A new caimanine alligatorid from the Middle Eocene of Southwest Texas and implications for spatial and temporal shifts in Paleogene crocodyliform diversity
title_short A new caimanine alligatorid from the Middle Eocene of Southwest Texas and implications for spatial and temporal shifts in Paleogene crocodyliform diversity
title_sort new caimanine alligatorid from the middle eocene of southwest texas and implications for spatial and temporal shifts in paleogene crocodyliform diversity
topic Biodiversity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7812925/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33520458
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10665
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