The core of the fossil record of Teleosauridae, a family of thalattosuchian crocodylomorphs, is well known from western Tethyan marine deposits of the Jurassic. Outside this province, their fossil record is patchy and in need of revision with specimens from Russia, Madagascar and Asia. Peipehsuchus teleorhinus is known from the Early or Middle Jurassic of China and teleosaurid specimens were mentioned or preliminarily described from two Jurassic localities in Thailand, yet they were not assigned to a given taxon. Thanks to recent fieldwork, at least 10 individuals represented by cranial material were excavated and prepared from a single Jurassic locality known as Phu Noi in the lower Phu Kradung Formation of northeastern Thailand. Here, we describe these specimens together with disarticulated postcranial elements and erect a new taxon, Indosinosuchus potamosiamensis gen. et sp. nov.. Phylogenetic analyses confirm the teleosaurid affinities of the new species, which does not form an exclusive clade with the Chinese teleosaurid Peipehsuchus teleorhinus. The presence of teleosaurids at Phu Noi and a preliminary account of its faunal content favor a Middle to Late Jurassic age for the fossil-bearing horizon. In contrast, Cretaceous deposits in Thailand are characterized by goniopholidids and pholidosaurids indicating a faunal turnover in SE Asia across the Jurassic-Cretaceous. As previously shown by isotope data, the new teleosaurid species was a resident of the freshwater environment and co-occurs with remains of exclusively terrestrial taxa such as sauropod, ornithopod and theropod dinosaurs and other freshwater reptiles such as turtles and temnospondyls.
A new skeleton of a sauropod dinosaur has been discovered in the Early Cretaceous Sao Khua Formation at Ban Na Khrai in Changwat Kalasin (NE Thailand). All sauropod bones from Ban Na Khrai share all their characteristics with the type specimen of Phuwiangosaurus sirindhornae Martin, Buffetaut & Suteethorn 1994. The 60% complete skeleton is very well preserved and includes cranial elements (a tooth, a frontal, a postorbital, a squamosal, both quadrates, and the braincase), whereas the type specimen is only 10% complete and consists of postcranial bones only. The material from Ban Na Khrai belongs to a single subadult individual of Phuwiangosaurus, as attested by the unfused neurocentral sutures of the vertebrae, which are firmly fused and larger in size in the holotypic specimen.
An isolated posterior cervical vertebra of a sauropod discovered at Phu Dan Ma (Kalasin Province, northeastern Thailand) is the first informative postcranial specimen from the Phu Kradung Formation, a Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous continental unit. The vertebra is referred to the family Mamenchisauridae, otherwise mainly known from China. In addition, spatulate teeth from the same formation and a mid−dorsal vertebra from the Upper Jurassic Khlong Min Formation of southern Thailand are reassigned to this family. The occurrence of mamenchisaurids in the earliest Cretaceous of Thailand supports a hypothesis of geographical isolation of Central, Eastern, and Southeast Asia during the Late Jurassic. It also suggests that the main changes in their dinosaur assemblages occurred during the Early Cretaceous, rather than at the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary.
Thalattosuchians are crocodylomorphs mainly known from marine strata of Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous age. They represent the earliest crocodylomorph radiation to an aquatic habitat and their evolutionary history offers very few records from freshwater settings. Here, we report several exquisitely preserved thalattosuchian skulls attributed to a derived teleosaurid from a pedogenic horizon located at the base of a fluvial series of alternating silts and sandstones of the Phu Kradung Formation (Upper Jurassic) of northeastern Thailand. Using laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) on tooth enamel and dentine, we measured isotopic ratios of strontium (87Sr/86Sr) to test the habitat of these teleosaurids. In addition, Sr concentrations of the dental tissues were estimated from the calibrated signal intensities of the Sr isotope measurements. The dataset includes bioapatite (teeth or scales) of eight terrestrial and five aquatic vertebrates. Theropods exhibit lower Sr concentrations both in enamel and dentine compared to others groups, a pattern in accordance with the calcium biopurification process, which predicts that Sr concentrations in the body of vertebrates decrease up the trophic chain. It also excludes the possibility that diagenesis has completely overprinted the Sr isotope compositions of the fossil assemblage, which exhibits a homogeneous87Sr/86Sr signature above the Late Jurassic seawater value. Values for teleosaurid teeth are in the range of other values for vertebrates in the continental assemblage and imply that these crocodylomorphs did not migrate between freshwater and marine habitats at least in the time constraint of the mineralizing tooth. This result represents the first demonstration that a population of teleosaurids was established for a prolonged time in a freshwater environment. Whether the ability of teleosaurids to inhabit freshwater habitats is a secondary adaptation or whether it is plesiomorphic and inherited from freshwater ancestors is discussed.
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