Titanosaurs were a globally distributed clade of Cretaceous sauropods. Historically regarded as a primarily Gondwanan radiation, there is a growing number of Eurasian taxa, with several putative titanosaurs contemporaneous with, or even pre-dating, the oldest known Southern Hemisphere remains. The early Late Cretaceous Jinhua Formation, in Zhejiang Province, China, has yielded two putative titanosaurs, Jiangshanosaurus lixianensis and Dongyangosaurus sinensis . Here, we provide a detailed re-description and diagnosis of Jiangshanosaurus , as well as new anatomical information on Dongyangosaurus . Previously, a ‘derived’ titanosaurian placement for Jiangshanosaurus was primarily based on the presence of procoelous anterior caudal centra. We show that this taxon had amphicoelous anterior-middle caudal centra. Its only titanosaurian synapomorphy is that the dorsal margins of the scapula and coracoid are approximately level with one another. Dongyangosaurus can clearly be differentiated from Jiangshanosaurus , and displays features that indicate a closer relationship to the titanosaur radiation. Revised scores for both taxa are incorporated into an expanded phylogenetic data matrix, comprising 124 taxa scored for 548 characters. Under equal weights parsimony, Jiangshanosaurus is recovered as a member of the non-titanosaurian East Asian somphospondylan clade Euhelopodidae, and Dongyangosaurus lies just outside of Titanosauria. However, when extended implied weighting is applied, both taxa are placed within Titanosauria. Most other ‘middle’ Cretaceous East Asian sauropods are probably non-titanosaurian somphospondylans, but at least Xianshanosaurus appears to belong to the titanosaur radiation. Our analyses also recover the Early Cretaceous European sauropod Normanniasaurus genceyi as a ‘derived’ titanosaur, clustering with Gondwanan taxa. These results provide further support for a widespread diversification of titanosaurs by at least the Early Cretaceous.
external energy input (e.g., electricity, heat, light, and humidity) into mechanical work to realize versatile and complex motions, allowing for a range of applications including soft robotics, artificial muscles, medical applications, and sensors. [2] In this context, photoactuators are particularly attractive because light can provide remote and noncontact energy supply and spatiotemporal control over the actuation. [3] Recently, a number of materials based on liquid-crystalline polymers, hydrogels, and photoswitchable moieties-bearing polymers that can undergo large deformation and reversible shape change arising from photochemical or photothermal effect have been designed and utilized to fabricate photoactuators. [4] Among them, the actuators using near-infrared (NIR) light as a actuation source seem more promising especially for biological applications owing to the deeper light penetration through tissues and less damage to biomaterials, as compared to UV and visible (Vis) light. [5] Thus far, studies of soft photoactuators have mainly focused on liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) and networks (LCNs). [6] Two approaches are usually utilized to fabricate such actuators by either mixing photothermal conversion agents (e.g., carbon nanotube, graphene, metal nanomaterials, and organic compounds or materials) with LCEs or incorporation of organic dyes into polymer chains. [7] As such, the photothermal-induced LC-isotropic phase transition can be achieved and consequently impart the actuators with diverse intriguing motions such as bending, twisting, oscillations, and crawling. [7c,8] In order to realize complex shape deformation and multifunctionality of the actuators, controlling the spatial configuration of the LCNs in the directionality and hierarchical orientation is usually needed. [9] Some systems successfully achieve complex shape morphing by a single-layer LCN film with special LC orientation controlling, and in some cases, bi-and multi-layer systems comprised of a responsive LCN and a passive material layer are employed for this purpose. [8c,10] It is noted that constructing a single-layer, single-component actuator with complex shape deformations is highly desirable, thus increasing their versatility and the range of applications. [11] Semicrystalline polymers (SCPs) represent an important class of shape memory polymers (SMPs). Because of the ease Light-driven soft actuators with adaptive shape changes, diverse geometric morphing, and reversible macroscopic movements have gained everincreasing interest owing to their diverse applications ranging from biomedical to aerospace devices. Herein, presented is a near-infrared (NIR) light-stimulated actuator based on cis-1,4 polybutadiene-polyethylene semicrystalline copolymer. In the system, a newly synthesized croconaine dye, 2,5-bis[(6-(11-carboxyundecanoate)hexyl-4-carboxylate-piperidylamino) thiophenyl]-croconium, serves as both an NIR absorbing agent and crosslinker. Taking advantage of easy processability, two-way shape memory, and photothermal eff...
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