Dynamics of dental evolution in ornithopod dinosaurs

Strickson, Edward; Prieto-Márquez, Albert; Benton, Michael J.; Stubbs, Thomas L.

doi:10.1038/srep28904

Cited by 21 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Based on discrete characters from the whole skeleton, Brusatte et al (2012) detected declines in the disparity of ceratopsians and hadrosauroids, but not among smaller ornithopods, theropods, and sauropodomorphs, from the Campanian to the Maastrichtian. This result both contrasts with (Strickson et al 2016) and agrees with (Larson et al 2016) previously mentioned studies.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…This includes Nigersaurus taqueti, which is the only sauropod known to have evolved a specialized "dental battery" (Sereno and Wilson 2005), and early hadrosauroids (Altirhinus kurzanovi, Jinzhousaurus yangi) with primitive versions of dental batteries. Dental batteries would later become more advanced in hadrosaurids and were likely a key factor in the success of this group in the Late Cretaceous (Norman and Weishampel 1985;Strickson et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Morphological Characters and Scoring.-Eighty-eight morphological characters, encompassing dental and jaw morphology, were used in the analysis (Supplementary Data 1). Forty-two of the dental characters were adopted from Strickson et al (2016), with minor adjustments to the scoring of ornithopods. Another 46 were collected from sources chosen to cover morphological variation in all groups included and to add characters describing jaw morphology.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, herbivores are expected to encompass more species with dietary specializations than carnivores (Bernays and Graham 1988;Codron et al 2016), so herbivorous dinosaurs should have been particularly sensitive to environmental perturbations (Davies et al 2004;Clavel et al 2011). Several studies have investigated dinosaur disparity leading up to the K-Pg extinction, three of which exclusively focused on ecomorphology (Larson et al 2016;Strickson et al 2016;MacLaren et al 2017). Larson et al (2016) used a geometric morphometric approach, finding that the dental morphospace occupation of different maniraptoran clades remained stable throughout the Santonian-Maastrichtian interval.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multifaceted disparity approach reveals dinosaur herbivory flourished before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction

et al. 2018

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Understanding temporal patterns in biodiversity is an enduring question in paleontology. Compared with studies of taxonomic diversity, long-term perspectives on ecological diversity are rare, particularly in terrestrial systems. Yet ecological diversity is critical for the maintenance of biodiversity, especially during times of major perturbations. Here, we explore the ecological diversity of Cretaceous herbivorous dinosaurs leading up to the K-Pg extinction, using dental and jaw morphological disparity as a proxy. We test the hypothesis that a decline in ecological diversity could have facilitated their rapid extinction 66 Ma. We apply three disparity metrics that together capture different aspects of morphospace occupation and show how this approach is key to understanding patterns of morphological evolution. We find no evidence of declining disparity in herbivorous dinosaurs as a whole—suggesting that dinosaur ecological diversity remained high during the last 10 Myr of their existence. Clades show different disparity trends through the Cretaceous, but none except sauropods exhibits a long-term decline. Herbivorous dinosaurs show two disparity peaks characterized by different processes; in the Early Cretaceous by expansion in morphospace and in the Campanian by morphospace packing. These trends were only revealed by using a combination of disparity metrics, demonstrating how this approach can offer novel insights into macroevolutionary processes underlying patterns of disparity and ecological diversity.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multifaceted disparity approach reveals dinosaur herbivory flourished before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction

et al. 2018

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“…Alternatively, researchers could construct or combine new matrices from multiple sources for disparity studies that focus on specific parts of anatomy, such as the teeth (Strickson et al . ) or teeth and jaw (Nordén et al . ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological disparity in theropod jaws: comparing discrete characters and geometric morphometrics

et al. 2019

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Disparity, the diversity of form and function of organisms, can be assessed from cladistic or phenetic characters, and from discrete characters or continuous characters such as landmarks, outlines, or ratios. But do these different methods of assessing disparity provide comparable results? Here we provide evidence that all metrics correlate significantly with each other and capture similar patterns of morphological variation. We compare three methods of capturing morphological disparity (discrete characters, geometric morphometric outlines and geometric morphometric landmarks) in coelurosaurian dinosaurs. We standardize our study by focusing all our metrics on the mandible, so avoiding the risk of confounding disparity methods with anatomical coverage of the taxa. The correlation is strongest between the two geometric morphometric methods, and weaker between the morphometric methods and the discrete characters. By using phylogenetic simulations of discrete character and geometric morphometric data sets, we show that the strength of these correlations is significantly greater than expected from the evolution of random data under Brownian motion. All disparity metrics confirm that Maniraptoriformes had the highest disparity of all coelurosaurians, and omnivores and herbivores had higher disparity than carnivores.

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Tooth replacement in Manidens condorensis: baseline study to address the replacement pattern in dentitions of early ornithischians

Becerra

Pol

Whitlock

et al. 2020

Papers in Palaeontology

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Dental replacement in Heterodontosauridae has been debated over the last five decades primarily on indirect evidence, such as the development of wear facets and the position of erupted teeth. Direct observation of unerupted teeth provides unambiguous data for understanding tooth replacement but this has been done only for Heterodontosaurus and Fruitadens. This study addresses dental replacement in Manidens condorensis based on the positioning of functional and replacement teeth using microcomputed tomography data, differential wear along the dentition and the differences in labiolingual/apicobasal level of functional teeth. Dental replacement in Manidens condorensis was continuous in an anterior‐to‐posterior wave pattern, with asynchronous tooth eruption and the addition of new teeth posteriorly to the toothrow during ontogeny. Manidens shows the first evidence of dental replacement for the large dentary caniniform in Heterodontosauridae, which possibly had replacement timing distinct from the cheek dentition. Newly erupted teeth imbricate in a mesial cavity–distal crown base relationship during eruption, so that imbrication of the midposterior dentition remains unaltered during tooth replacement. The presence/absence of a small caniniform tooth in the D3 position of several specimens suggests possible intraspecific dimorphism in Manidens. On longitudinal sections of isolated crowns the histological features such as Howship's lacunae and odontoclast spaces are similar in size to extant reptiles. The differential wear decreasing posteriorly and hypothetical Z‐spacing below 2.3 in Manidens are similar to basal ornithischians. Tooth replacement in Heterodontosauridae (and other early ornithischians) provides key information for understanding the dynamics of jaw function and craniomandibular specialization to herbivory.

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Dynamics of dental evolution in ornithopod dinosaurs

Cited by 21 publications

References 51 publications

Multifaceted disparity approach reveals dinosaur herbivory flourished before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction

Multifaceted disparity approach reveals dinosaur herbivory flourished before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction

Morphological disparity in theropod jaws: comparing discrete characters and geometric morphometrics

Tooth replacement in Manidens condorensis: baseline study to address the replacement pattern in dentitions of early ornithischians

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