Digital preparation and osteology of the skull of<i>Lesothosaurus diagnosticus</i>(Ornithischia: Dinosauria)

Porro, Laura B.; Witmer, Lawrence M.; Barrett, Paul M.

doi:10.7717/peerj.1494

Cited by 50 publications

(151 citation statements)

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“…This feature is present in NHMUK PV RU B17 (Porro et al, 2015: fig. 2F; Barrett et al, 2016) and NHMUK PV RU B23 and MNHN LES18.…”

Section: Diagnosis Of Lesothosaurus Diagnosticusmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…(Knoll, 2002); cf. Stormbergia & Lesothosaurus (Butler, 2005); Lesothosaurus diagnosticus (Porro et al, 2015) Lesothosaurus diagnosticus (referred) some of which have intact pre-and postzygapophyses. Cervical, dorsal, sacral and caudal vertebrae are all present in this specimen but little can be said about the sacral and caudal material due to its incompleteness.…”

Section: Mnhn Les 18mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A re-description of the cranial material is currently under way (Porro, Witmer & Barrett, 2015), but a comprehensive, thorough description of the postcranial anatomy is still lacking. Here, we provide a detailed re-description of the postcranial anatomy of L. diagnosticus and figure the majority of the syntype material for the first time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Postcranial anatomy ofLesothosaurus diagnosticus(Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Lower Jurassic of southern Africa: implications for basal ornithischian taxonomy and systematics

2016

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Lesothosaurus diagnosticus from the upper Elliot Formation of South Africa and Lesotho (?HettangianSinemurian) is an important early representative of Ornithischia. In previous studies it has been recovered in several positions on the ornithischian tree including as the earliest known member of Thyreophora, the earliest known member of Neornithischia and as a member of an even a more basal ornithischian lineage, one that diverged before these major groups appeared. Given this taxon's important position as one of the few well-known early ornithischians, it is surprising that details of much of its anatomy remain unpublished. A second nonheterodontosaurid ornithischian taxon, also from the upper Elliot Formation, Stormbergia dangershoeki, has also been recovered as the earliest known member of Neornithischia; however, the validity of this taxon has been challenged. Hence, a reassessment of the taxonomic statuses and systematic positions of L. diagnosticus and S. dangershoeki within Ornithischia is required as an important step in the investigation of the early evolution of this group. A comprehensive redescription of the post-cranial material of L. diagnosticus and a re-evaluation of other 'fabrosaur' material (including the hypodigm of S. dangershoeki) was carried out to provide new information on the anatomy of these taxa and to better resolve the relationships at the base of the ornithischian tree. This study has found that the material of L. diagnosticus and S. dangershoeki almost certainly represents the same taxon and that the apparent differences between these genera is probably a product of ontogentic (rather than taxonomic) differences. A revision of the phylogenetic relationships of L. diagnosticus (when synonymized with S. dangershoeki) recovers it as the basal most member of Neornithischia.

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“…This feature is present in NHMUK PV RU B17 (Porro et al, 2015: fig. 2F; Barrett et al, 2016) and NHMUK PV RU B23 and MNHN LES18.…”

Section: Diagnosis Of Lesothosaurus Diagnosticusmentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Mnhn Les 18mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Postcranial anatomy ofLesothosaurus diagnosticus(Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Lower Jurassic of southern Africa: implications for basal ornithischian taxonomy and systematics

2016

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“…The jugal of Lesothosaurus (Fig. F) is triradiate, with a long, tapering anterior process and a relatively deep posterior process (Thulborn, ; Sereno, ; Knoll, ; Barrett and Han, ; Porro et al, ; Barrett et al, ). The posterior process is poorly known, but may bifurcate as in saurischians (Barrett and Han, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological Diversity and Evolution of the Jugal in Dinosaurs

Sullivan

2016

The Anatomical Record

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In dinosaurs, as in other reptiles, the homologue of the mammalian zygomatic bone is the jugal. The dinosaurian jugal was primitively triradiate, with posterior, dorsal and anterior processes that respectively contacted the quadratojugal, the postorbital, and the maxilla and lacrimal. However, the jugal evolved along different lines in the three major dinosaurian clades. In theropods this cranial element remained relatively conservative in morphology, apart from being reduced to a rod-like structure in most birds and a few non-avians. In sauropodomorphs the jugal eventually became small, plate-like and nearly restricted to the area below the orbit, even being excluded from the ventral margin of the skull in many derived taxa. Among ornithischians the jugal was highly variable, but in many cases became large and/or adorned with ornamental features such as horns, flanges, and rugosities. The jugal does not appear to have been a site of muscle attachment in most non-avian dinosaurs, but represented an important structural element in the akinetic dinosaurian skull. The conspicuous jugal ornaments seen in many ornithischian dinosaurs, like the less striking ones documented in some saurischians, may have played an important role in the social behavior of the species that possessed them. In many cases they have a weapon-like aspect suggesting use in aggressive displays, if not actual combat, adding to the evidence that agonistic behavior was likely widespread among ornithischians in particular. Anat Rec,

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“…Species ranged in size from small-bodied forms less than 1 m long to giants over before and after reassembly. Computed tomography and 3D digital reconstruction are increasingly being applied to the skulls of fossil vertebrates, including early tetrapods (Porro et al, 2015a,b), dinosaurs (Rayfield et al, 2001;Lautenschlager et al, 2014Lautenschlager et al, , 2016Porro et al, 2015c;Button et al, 2016) and extinct synapsids (Wroe, 2007;Jasinoski et al, 2009;Sharp, 2014;Cox et al, 2015;Lautenschlager et al, 2017). The first attempt to understand the internal anatomy of the ichthyosaur skull was carried out by Sollas (1916) using serial grinding; although this method produced excellent understanding of skull anatomy, it was time-consuming, labour intensive and resulted in the destruction of the specimen.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Review #2 of "Descriptive anatomy of the largest known specimen of Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) including computed tomography and digital reconstruction of a three-dimensional skull (v0.1)"

Fernández¹

2019

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Ichthyosaur fossils are abundant in Lower Jurassic sediments with nine genera found in the UK. In this paper, we describe the partial skeleton of a large ichthyosaur from the Lower Jurassic (lower Sinemurian) of Warwickshire, England, which was conserved and rearticulated to form the centerpiece of a new permanent gallery at the Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum in 2015. The unusual three-dimensional preservation of the specimen permitted computed tomography scanning of individual braincase elements as well as the entire reassembled skull. This represents one of the first times that medical imaging and three-dimensional reconstruction methods have been applied to a large skull of a marine reptile. Data from these scans provide new anatomical information, such as the presence of branching vascular canals within the premaxilla and dentary, and an undescribed dorsal (quadrate) wing of the pterygoid hidden within matrix. Scanning also revealed areas of the skull that had been modelled in wood, clay and other materials after the specimen's initial discovery, highlighting the utility of applying advanced imaging techniques to historical specimens. Additionally, the CT data served as the basis for a new three-dimensional reconstruction of the skull, in which minor damage was repaired and the preserved bones digitally rearticulated. Thus, for the first time a digital reconstruction of the skull and mandible of a large marine reptile skull is available. Museum records show the specimen was originally identified as an example of Ichthyosaurus communis but we identify this specimen as Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis. The specimen features a skull nearly twice as long as any previously described specimen of P. prostaxalis, representing an individual with an estimated total body length between 3.2 and 4 meters.

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Digital preparation and osteology of the skull ofLesothosaurus diagnosticus(Ornithischia: Dinosauria)

Cited by 50 publications

References 65 publications

Postcranial anatomy ofLesothosaurus diagnosticus(Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Lower Jurassic of southern Africa: implications for basal ornithischian taxonomy and systematics

Postcranial anatomy ofLesothosaurus diagnosticus(Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Lower Jurassic of southern Africa: implications for basal ornithischian taxonomy and systematics

Morphological Diversity and Evolution of the Jugal in Dinosaurs

Peer Review #2 of "Descriptive anatomy of the largest known specimen of Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) including computed tomography and digital reconstruction of a three-dimensional skull (v0.1)"

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