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Neuroanatomy of the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus austriacus (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) supports potential ecological differentiations within Ankylosauria
Nodosauridae is a group of thyreophoran dinosaurs characterized by a collar of prominent osteoderms. In comparison to its sister group, the often club-tailed ankylosaurids, a different lifestyle of nodosaurids could be assumed based on their neuroanatomy and weaponry, e.g., regarding applied defensi...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group UK
2022
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8741922/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34996895 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03599-9 |
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author | Schade, Marco Stumpf, Sebastian Kriwet, Jürgen Kettler, Christoph Pfaff, Cathrin |
author_facet | Schade, Marco Stumpf, Sebastian Kriwet, Jürgen Kettler, Christoph Pfaff, Cathrin |
author_sort | Schade, Marco |
collection | PubMed |
description | Nodosauridae is a group of thyreophoran dinosaurs characterized by a collar of prominent osteoderms. In comparison to its sister group, the often club-tailed ankylosaurids, a different lifestyle of nodosaurids could be assumed based on their neuroanatomy and weaponry, e.g., regarding applied defensive strategies. The holotype of the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus austriacus consists of a single partial braincase from the Late Cretaceous of Austria. Since neuroanatomy is considered to be associated with ecological tendencies, we created digital models of the braincase based on micro-CT data. The cranial endocast of S. austriacus generally resembles those of its relatives. A network of vascular canals surrounding the brain cavity further supports special thermoregulatory adaptations within Ankylosauria. The horizontal orientation of the lateral semicircular canal independently confirms previous appraisals of head posture for S. austriacus and, hence, strengthens the usage of the LSC as proxy for habitual head posture in fossil tetrapods. The short anterior and angular lateral semicircular canals, combined with the relatively shortest dinosaurian cochlear duct known so far and the lack of a floccular recess suggest a rather inert lifestyle without the necessity of sophisticated senses for equilibrium and hearing in S. austriacus. These observations agree with an animal that adapted to a comparatively inactive lifestyle with limited social interactions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8741922 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-87419222022-01-10 Neuroanatomy of the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus austriacus (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) supports potential ecological differentiations within Ankylosauria Schade, Marco Stumpf, Sebastian Kriwet, Jürgen Kettler, Christoph Pfaff, Cathrin Sci Rep Article Nodosauridae is a group of thyreophoran dinosaurs characterized by a collar of prominent osteoderms. In comparison to its sister group, the often club-tailed ankylosaurids, a different lifestyle of nodosaurids could be assumed based on their neuroanatomy and weaponry, e.g., regarding applied defensive strategies. The holotype of the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus austriacus consists of a single partial braincase from the Late Cretaceous of Austria. Since neuroanatomy is considered to be associated with ecological tendencies, we created digital models of the braincase based on micro-CT data. The cranial endocast of S. austriacus generally resembles those of its relatives. A network of vascular canals surrounding the brain cavity further supports special thermoregulatory adaptations within Ankylosauria. The horizontal orientation of the lateral semicircular canal independently confirms previous appraisals of head posture for S. austriacus and, hence, strengthens the usage of the LSC as proxy for habitual head posture in fossil tetrapods. The short anterior and angular lateral semicircular canals, combined with the relatively shortest dinosaurian cochlear duct known so far and the lack of a floccular recess suggest a rather inert lifestyle without the necessity of sophisticated senses for equilibrium and hearing in S. austriacus. These observations agree with an animal that adapted to a comparatively inactive lifestyle with limited social interactions. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8741922/ /pubmed/34996895 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03599-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Schade, Marco Stumpf, Sebastian Kriwet, Jürgen Kettler, Christoph Pfaff, Cathrin Neuroanatomy of the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus austriacus (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) supports potential ecological differentiations within Ankylosauria |
title | Neuroanatomy of the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus austriacus (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) supports potential ecological differentiations within Ankylosauria |
title_full | Neuroanatomy of the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus austriacus (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) supports potential ecological differentiations within Ankylosauria |
title_fullStr | Neuroanatomy of the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus austriacus (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) supports potential ecological differentiations within Ankylosauria |
title_full_unstemmed | Neuroanatomy of the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus austriacus (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) supports potential ecological differentiations within Ankylosauria |
title_short | Neuroanatomy of the nodosaurid Struthiosaurus austriacus (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) supports potential ecological differentiations within Ankylosauria |
title_sort | neuroanatomy of the nodosaurid struthiosaurus austriacus (dinosauria: thyreophora) supports potential ecological differentiations within ankylosauria |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8741922/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34996895 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03599-9 |
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