Bringing Dicynodonts Back to Life: Paleobiology and Anatomy of a New Emydopoid Genus from the Upper Permian of Mozambique

Castanhinha, Rui; Araújo, Ricardo; Júnior, Luis Carlos Vieira Batista; Angielczyk, Kenneth D.; Martins, Gabriel G.; Martins, R. M. S.; Chaouiya, Claudine; Beckmann, Felix; Wilde, Fabian

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080974

Cited by 84 publications

(199 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…This pronounced flexure between the fore-and hindbrain sets biarmosuchians apart from most other therapsids, which have only a slight flexion posterior to the pineal tube, as in Moschops ( Fig. 8 b) [Kemp, 1969[Kemp, , 1979[Kemp, , 2009Jerison, 1973;Hopson, 1979;Quiroga, 1980Quiroga, , 1984Kielan-Jaworowska et al, 2004;Rowe et al, 2011;Castanhinha et al, 2013;Rodrigues et al, 2014;Laass, 2015a].…”

Section: Shape Of the Endocastmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…As they are nearly invisible on the endocast this would suggest that, unlike Gorgonopsia, Dicynodontia, and Eutheriodontia, they were very small ( Fig. 3 b-7 b) [Kemp, 1969[Kemp, , 1979[Kemp, , 2009Jerison, 1973;Hopson, 1979;Quiroga, 1980Quiroga, , 1984Kielan-Jaworowska et al, 2004;Castanhinha et al, 2013;Rodrigues et al, 2014;Laass, 2015a;Laass and Kaestner, 2017]. Alternatively, it could be argued that the part of the braincase that contains olfactory bulbs is not preserved, as it was located more rostrally and not ossified.…”

Section: Shape Of the Endocastmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In PermoTriassic Therapsida (also known as "mammal-like reptiles," the stem group of extant mammals; Fig. 1 ), the brain was often encapsulated by soft tissues rather than bone, making the borders of the braincase difficult to determine as they are not ossified [Case, 1907;Olson, 1944;Cluver, 1971;Jerison, 1973;Hopson, 1979;Quiroga, 1980Quiroga, , 1984Kielan-Jaworowska et al, 2004;Castanhinha et al, 2013;Rodrigues et al, 2014;Laass, 2015a;mammaliaform Therapsida (NMT) is fused to the bony labyrinth and usually preserves anatomical details only caudal to the pituitary fossa [Case, 1907;Olson, 1944;Kemp, 1969Kemp, , 1979Kemp, , 2009Jerison, 1973;Hopson, 1979;Quiroga, 1980Quiroga, , 1984Kielan-Jaworowska et al, 2004;Rodrigues et al, 2014;Laass, 2015a]. Accordingly, previous attempts to measure brain size and determine brain shape in therapsids resulted more in approximations than true estimations as there was a reliance on a variety of indirect approaches, ranging from geometric simplifications to conjectural visual approximations of brain morphology [Cluver, 1971;Kemp, 1969Kemp, , 1979Kemp, , 2009Jerison, 1973;Hopson, 1979;Quiroga, 1980Quiroga, , 1984Rowe et al, 2011;Rodrigues et al, 2014;Laass, 2015a].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly, previous attempts to measure brain size and determine brain shape in therapsids resulted more in approximations than true estimations as there was a reliance on a variety of indirect approaches, ranging from geometric simplifications to conjectural visual approximations of brain morphology [Cluver, 1971;Kemp, 1969Kemp, , 1979Kemp, , 2009Jerison, 1973;Hopson, 1979;Quiroga, 1980Quiroga, , 1984Rowe et al, 2011;Rodrigues et al, 2014;Laass, 2015a]. Even the most recent CT scan-based surveys have encountered difficulties in obtaining a reliable picture of the therapsid braincase [Kemp, 2009;Rowe et al, 2011;Castanhinha et al, 2013;Rodrigues et al, 2014;Laass, 2015a;Araújo et al, 2017]. Accordingly, most endocranial volumes have been calculated on indirect evidence [Jerison, 1973;Hopson, 1979;Quiroga, 1980Quiroga, , 1984Kielan-Jaworowska et al, 2004;Rowe et al, 2011;Rodrigues et al, 2014;Laass, 2015a; but see Laass and Kaestner, 2017], and resulting estimations of the encephalisation quotient (EQ, a measure of brain volume relative to body mass [Jerison, 1973]) are controversial [see Kemp, 2009].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Endocranial Casts of Pre-Mammalian Therapsids Reveal an Unexpected Neurological Diversity at the Deep Evolutionary Root of Mammals

Benoît

Fernández²,

Manger³

et al. 2017

Brain Behav Evol

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The origin and evolution of the mammalian brain has long been the focus of scientific enquiry. Conversely, little research has focused on the palaeoneurology of the stem group of Mammaliaformes, the Permian and Triassic non-mammaliaform Therapsida (NMT). This is because the majority of the NMT have a non-ossified braincase, making the study of their endocranial cast (sometimes called the “fossil brain”) problematic. Thus, descriptions of the morphology and size of NMT endocranial casts have been based largely on approximations rather than reliable determination. Accordingly, here we use micro-CT scans of the skulls of 1 Dinocephalia and 3 Biarmosuchia, which are NMT with a fully ossified braincase and thus a complete endocast. For the first time, our work enables the accurate determination of endocranial shape and size in NMT. This study suggests that NMT brain size falls in the upper range of the reptilian and amphibian variation. Brain size in the dicynodont Kawingasaurus is equivalent to that of early Mammaliaformes, whereas the Dinocephalia show evidence of a secondary reduction of brain size. In addition, unlike other NMT in which the endocast has a tubular shape and its parts are arranged in a linear manner, the biarmosuchian endocast is strongly flexed at the level of the midbrain, creating a near right angle between the fore- and hindbrain. These data highlight an unexpected diversity of endocranial size and morphology in NMT, features that are usually considered conservative in this group.

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Section: Shape Of the Endocastmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Shape Of the Endocastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Endocranial Casts of Pre-Mammalian Therapsids Reveal an Unexpected Neurological Diversity at the Deep Evolutionary Root of Mammals

Benoît

Fernández²,

Manger³

et al. 2017

Brain Behav Evol

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“…Lopingian tetrapod faunas, yielding skeletal and/or footprint remains, are known from Scotland (Benton and Walker, 1985), Great Britain and Germany (Benton and Walker, 1985;Sues and Boy, 1988), Poland (Ptaszyński and Niedźwiedzki, 2004; though its age is controversial, see Bachman and Kozur, 2004;Nawrocki et al, 2005;Racki, 2005), Italy (Conti et al, 1977), Morocco (Jalil and Dutuit, 1996;Voigt et al, 2010;Hminna et al, 2012), Tunisia (Newell et al, 1976), Malawi (Haughton, 1926;Jacobs et al, 2005;Kruger et al, 2015), Mozambique (Latimer et al, 1995;Castanhinha et al, 2013), Tanzania (Gay and Cruickshank, 1999;Sidor et al, 2010;Angielczyk et al, 2014a), Zimbabwe (Bond, 1973;Gaffney and Mc Kenna, 1979), Zambia (Drysdall and Kitching, 1963;Kemp, 1976;Lee et al, 1997;Angielczyk et al, 2014b), Niger (Sidor et al, 2005;Smith et al, 2015), South Africa (MacRae, 1990;Smith, 1993aSmith, , 1993bDe Klerk, 2002;Ward et al, 2005;Rubidge, 2005;Smith et al, 2012;Rubidge et al, 2016), Madagascar (Mazin and King, 1991;Schoch and Milner, 2000), Brazil (Battail, 2000;…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Permian (Lopingian) Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Global Comparison With New Data From the Low Latitude Bletterbach Biota

Petti¹,

Bernardi²,

Kustatscher³

et al. 2017

Geological Society of America Abstracts With Programs

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Keywords:Tetrapoda flora phytoprovinces plant-insect interactions climate endemism latitudinal diversity gradient A B S T R A C TThe late Palaeozoic is a pivotal period for the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems. Generalised warming and aridification trends resulted in profound floral and faunal turnover as well as increased levels of endemism. The patchiness of well-preserved, late Permian terrestrial ecosystems, however, complicates attempts to reconstruct a coherent, global scenario. In this paper, we provide a new reconstruction of the Bletterbach Biota (Southern Alps, NE Italy), which constitutes a unique, low-latitude record of Lopingian life on land. We also integrate floral, faunal (from skeletal and footprint studies), and plant-insect interaction data, as well as global climatic interpretations, to compare the composition of the 14 best-known late Permian ecosystems. The results of this ecosystem-scale analysis provide evidence for a strong correlation between the distribution of the principal clades of tetrapod herbivores (dicynodonts, pareiasaurs, captorhinids), phytoprovinces and climatic latitudinal zonation. We show that terrestrial ecosystems were structured and provincialised at high taxonomic levels by climate regions, and that latitudinal distribution is a key predictor of ecosystem compositional affinity. A latitudinal diversity gradient characterised by decreasing richness towards higher latitudes is apparent: mid-to lowlatitude ecosystems had the greatest amount of high-level taxonomic diversity, whereas those from high latitudes were dominated by small numbers of higher taxa. The high diversities of tropical ecosystems stem from their inclusion of a mixture of late-occurring holdovers from the early Permian, early members of clades that come to prominence in the Triassic, and contemporary taxa that are also represented in higher latitude assemblages. A variety of evidence suggests that the Permian tropics acted as both a cradle (an area with high origination rates) and museum (an area with low extinction rates) for biodiversity.

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Endocranial anatomy of the early prozostrodonts (Eucynodontia: Probainognathia) and the neurosensory evolution in mammal forerunners

Kerber

Roese-Miron

Bubadué

et al. 2023

The Anatomical Record

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Prozostrodon brasiliensis and Therioherpeton cargnini are non‐mammaliaform cynodonts that lived ~233 million years ago (late Carnian, Late Triassic) in western Gondwana. They represent some of the earliest divergent members of the clade Prozostrodontia, which includes “tritheledontids”, tritylodontids, “brasilodontids”, and mammaliaforms (including Mammalia as crown group). Here, we studied the endocranial anatomy (cranial endocast, nerves, vessels, ducts, ear region, and nasal cavity) of these two species. Our findings suggest that during the Carnian, early prozostrodonts had a brain with well‐developed olfactory bulbs, expanded cerebral hemispheres divided by the interhemispheric sulcus, and absence of an unossified zone and pineal body. The morphology of the maxillary canal represents the necessary condition for the presence of facial vibrissae. A slight decrease in encephalization is observed at the origin of the clade Prozostrodontia. This new anatomical information provides evidence for the evolution of endocranial traits of the first prozotrodonts, a Late Triassic lineage that culminated in the origin of mammals.

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Bringing Dicynodonts Back to Life: Paleobiology and Anatomy of a New Emydopoid Genus from the Upper Permian of Mozambique

Cited by 84 publications

References 90 publications

Endocranial Casts of Pre-Mammalian Therapsids Reveal an Unexpected Neurological Diversity at the Deep Evolutionary Root of Mammals

Endocranial Casts of Pre-Mammalian Therapsids Reveal an Unexpected Neurological Diversity at the Deep Evolutionary Root of Mammals

Late Permian (Lopingian) Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Global Comparison With New Data From the Low Latitude Bletterbach Biota

Endocranial anatomy of the early prozostrodonts (Eucynodontia: Probainognathia) and the neurosensory evolution in mammal forerunners

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