Eochelysipus horni, a new vertebrate trace fossil from the Tournaisian Horton Bluff Formation, Nova Scotia

Mossman, David J.; Grantham, Robert G.

doi:10.4138/5933

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Additionally, the Blue Beach femora have non-zero compactness values at the bone centre, a trait shared with Ornithorhynchus, indicating the presence of trabecular bone through the entire medullary cavity. The Blue Beach femora, which were predicted to represent a range of aquatic to terrestrial taxa based on known trackway and body fossils present at the site (table 1; [44][45][46]), were all designated aquatic by the binary formula of Quemeneur et al [8].…”

Section: Compactness Profilesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These conditions explain the presence of aquatic, semi-aquatic and possibly terrestrial vertebrates at the same locality. Trackways suggest the presence of terrestrial taxa [45,46].…”

Section: Blue Beachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the earliest post-Devonian sites within the Early Carboniferous worldwide hiatus in the fossil record is Blue Beach in Nova Scotia, Canada. It preserves a diverse fauna with elements from both the Late Devonian and later Carboniferous tetrapod faunas as well as a rich trackway record [44][45][46]. These conditions make it an excellent locality to test the terrestrial capabilities of taxa along the fin-tolimb transition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Locomotory behaviour of early tetrapods from Blue Beach, Nova Scotia, revealed by novel microanatomical analysis

Lennie

Manske

Mansky³

et al. 2021

R. Soc. open sci.

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Evidence for terrestriality in early tetrapods is fundamentally contradictory. Fossil trackways attributed to early terrestrial tetrapods long predate the first body fossils from the Late Devonian. However, the Devonian body fossils demonstrate an obligatorily aquatic lifestyle. Complicating our understanding of the transition from water to land is a pronounced gap in the fossil record between the aquatic Devonian taxa and presumably terrestrial tetrapods from the later Early Carboniferous. Recent work suggests that an obligatorily aquatic habit persists much higher in the tetrapod tree than previously recognized. Here, we present independent microanatomical data of locomotor capability from the earliest Carboniferous of Blue Beach, Nova Scotia. The site preserves limb bones from taxa representative of Late Devonian to mid-Carboniferous faunas as well as a rich trackway record. Given that bone remodels in response to functional stresses including gravity and ground reaction forces, we analysed both the midshaft compactness profiles and trabecular anisotropy, the latter using a new whole bone approach. Our findings suggest that early tetrapods retained an aquatic lifestyle despite varied limb morphologies, prior to their emergence onto land. These results suggest that trackways attributed to early tetrapods be closely scrutinized for additional information regarding their creation conditions, and demand an expansion of sampling to better identify the first terrestrial tetrapods.

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Section: Compactness Profilesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These conditions explain the presence of aquatic, semi-aquatic and possibly terrestrial vertebrates at the same locality. Trackways suggest the presence of terrestrial taxa [45,46].…”

Section: Blue Beachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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