Histological skeletochronology indicates developmental plasticity in the early Permian stem lissamphibian <i>Doleserpeton annectens</i>

Gee, Bryan M.; Haridy, Yara; Reisz, Robert R.

doi:10.1002/ece3.6054

Cited by 25 publications

(25 citation statements)

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“…The oldest known specimen (UOBS 02123) from the Polish locality is estimated at five years, but is shorter, having only 84 mm in length (Konietzko-Meier & Klein, 2013). The weak correlation between the age and the size represents developmental plasticity typical for lissamphibians and already known for Early Permian stem lissamphibian Doleserpeton annectens (Gee, Haridy & Reisz, 2020). This is in contradiction with the conclusion from Konietzko-Meier & Klein (2013), where the developmental plasticity was excluded.…”

Section: Age Estimation and Interpretation Of Ontogenetic Growthmentioning

confidence: 60%

Climatic influence on the growth pattern ofPanthasaurus maleriensisfrom the Late Triassic of India deduced from paleohistology

Teschner

Chakravorti

Sengupta

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Metoposaurids are representatives of the extinct amphibian clade Temnospondyli, found on almost every continent exclusively in the Late Triassic deposits. Osteohistologically, it is one of the best-known temnospondyl groups, analyzed with a wide spectrum of methods, such as morphology, morphometry, bone histology or computed modelling. The least known member of Metoposauridae is Panthasaurus maleriensis from the Pranhita-Godavari basin in Central India, being geographically the most southern record of this family. For the first time the bone histology of this taxon was studied with a focus on the intraspecific variability of the histological framework and the relationship between the observed growth pattern and climatic and/or environmental conditions. The studied material includes thin-sections of five long bones, a rib, an ilium and an intercentrum belonging most likely to eight individuals ranging from different ontogenetic stages. All bones have a large medullary region with progressively increasing remodeling, surrounded by a lamellar-zonal tissue type. The primary cortex consists of parallel-fibered matrix showing various degrees of organization, less organized collagen fibers in the zones and higher organized in the annuli. Growth marks occur in the form of alternating zones and annuli in every bone except the ilium and the intercentrum. The vascularity becomes less dense towards the outermost cortex in all sampled limb bones. Towards the outermost cortex the zone thickness is decreasing, in contrast to the avascular annuli, that become thicker or are of the same thickness. The growth pattern of P. maleriensis is uniform and represents changes in ontogenetic development. Multiple resting lines are prominent in the outer annuli of the limb bones and the rib and they presumably indicate climatic and environmental influence on the growth pattern. Therefore, a prolonged phase of slowed-down growth occurred during the unfavorable phase, but a complete cessation of growth indicated by Lines of Arrested Growth (LAGs) is not recorded in the studied samples. Based on the histological framework we conclude that the climate had an impact on the growth pattern. As we do not see any LAGs in the Indian metoposaurid, we assume that the local climate was relatively mild in India during the Late Triassic. A similar prolonged phase of slowed down growth without the occurrence of LAGs was observed in Metoposaurus krasiejowensis from the Late Triassic of Krasiejów (Poland). This is in contrast to Moroccan metoposaurid Dutuitosaurus ouazzoui from the Late Triassic of Argana Basin, where LAGs are regularly deposited throughout ontogeny indicating most likely harsher climatic conditions.

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Section: Age Estimation and Interpretation Of Ontogenetic Growthmentioning

confidence: 60%

Climatic influence on the growth pattern ofPanthasaurus maleriensisfrom the Late Triassic of India deduced from paleohistology

Teschner

Chakravorti

Sengupta

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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“…Osteohistological developmental plasticity has been reported in extant amphibians (Alcobendas & Castanet, 2000) and birds (Starck & Chinsamy, 2002). In extinct vertebrates this feature, in the form of variation in single or double LAGs or number of LAGs and size, has been found in the Permian lissamphibian Doleserpeton (Gee, Haridy & Reisz, 2020) and the Triassic sauropodomorph dinosaur Plateosaurus (Sander & Klein, 2005). In this case, L. murrayi and L. declivis show a variable instance of LAGs at similar body sizes, similar to Plateosaurus.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

The paleobiology and paleoecology of South African Lystrosaurus

Botha‐Brink

2020

PeerJ

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Lystrosaurus was one of the few tetrapods to survive the end-Permian mass extinction (EPME), the most catastrophic biotic crisis in Phanerozoic history. The significant increased abundance of this genus during the post-extinction Early Triassic recovery period has made Lystrosaurus an iconic survivor taxon globally and ideal for studying changes in growth dynamics during a mass extinction. There is potential evidence of a Lilliput effect in Lystrosaurus in South Africa as the two Triassic species that became highly abundant after the EPME are relatively smaller than the two Permian species. In order to test this hypothesis a detailed examination of the body size and life history of Permo-Triassic Lystrosaurus is required. In this study, the basal skull length and growth patterns of the four South African Lystrosaurus species from the Karoo Basin, L. maccaigi, L. curvatus, L. murrayi and L. declivis, were examined using cranial measurements and bone histology. The basal skull length measurements show that the Triassic species are smaller than the Permian species and supports previous studies. The osteohistology examination of all four species reveal rapidly forming fibrolamellar bone tissues during early to mid-ontogeny. Growth marks are common in L. maccaigi and L. curvatus, but rare and inconsistent in the purely Triassic L. murrayi and L. declivis. The inconsistency of the growth marks in these latter two taxa suggests the presence of developmental plasticity. This feature may have been advantageous in allowing these species to alter their growth patterns in response to environmental cues in the post-extinction Early Triassic climate. An overall transition to slower forming parallel-fibered bone is observed in the largest individuals of L. maccaigi, but absent from the limb bones of the other species. The absence of such bone tissue or outer circumferential lamellae in L. curvatus, L. murrayi and L. declivis indicates that even the largest collected specimens do not represent fully grown individuals. Although L. murrayi and L. declivis are smaller in size, the lack of a growth asymptote in the largest specimens indicates that adult individuals would have been notably larger and may have been similar in size to large L. maccaigi and L. curvatus when fully grown. Thus, the previously described Lilliput effect, recognized by some authors in the Karoo fossil record (such as the therocephalian Moschorhinus kitchingi), may be a product of high juvenile excess mortality in the Triassic rather than a strict “dwarfing” of Lystrosaurus species. The lifestyle of Lystrosaurus was also re-examined. Although previous studies have proposed an aquatic lifestyle for the genus, the similar morphology and bone microanatomy to several other large terrestrial Permo-Triassic dicynodonts supports a fully terrestrial mode of life.

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“…Additionally, determining whether an individual has attained sexual maturity based solely on fossilized remains is often challenging and is therefore comparatively rare, although several methods have been devised to determine sexual maturity for some groups with reasonable certainty. One of the most common methods is determining the point in life history when the initially rapid rate of growth decreases as energy is shifted towards reproduction and away from growth, which necessitates the construction of a growth curve of individuals based on absolute age and body mass [Green & Rothstein, 1991; Sander, 2000; Erickson et al ., 2007; Erickson, 2014; but note that small sample size combined with intraspecific variation can produce misleading growth curves (Gee, Haridy & Reisz, 2020)]. Another method to test for sexual maturity is the presence of medullary bone.…”

Section: Terminology Of Maturity Assessment and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing ontogenetic maturity in extinct saurian reptiles

et al. 2020

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Morphology forms the most fundamental level of data in vertebrate palaeontology because it is through interpretations of morphology that taxa are identified, creating the basis for broad evolutionary and palaeobiological hypotheses. Assessing maturity is one of the most basic aspects of morphological interpretation and provides the means to study the evolution of ontogenetic changes, population structure and palaeoecology, life‐history strategies, and heterochrony along evolutionary lineages that would otherwise be lost to time. Saurian reptiles (the least‐inclusive clade containing Lepidosauria and Archosauria) have remained an incredibly diverse, numerous, and disparate clade through their ~260‐million‐year history. Because of the great disparity in this group, assessing maturity of saurian reptiles is difficult, fraught with methodological and terminological ambiguity. We compiled a novel database of literature, assembling >900 individual instances of saurian maturity assessment, to examine critically how saurian maturity has been diagnosed. We review the often inexact and inconsistent terminology used in saurian maturity assessment (e.g. ‘juvenile’, ‘mature’) and provide routes for better clarity and cross‐study coherence. We describe the various methods that have been used to assess maturity in every major saurian group, integrating data from both extant and extinct taxa to give a full account of the current state of the field and providing method‐specific pitfalls, best practices, and fruitful directions for future research. We recommend that a new standard subsection, ‘Ontogenetic Assessment’, be added to the Systematic Palaeontology portions of descriptive studies to provide explicit ontogenetic diagnoses with clear criteria. Because the utility of different ontogenetic criteria is highly subclade dependent among saurians, even for widely used methods (e.g. neurocentral suture fusion), we recommend that phylogenetic context, preferably in the form of a phylogenetic bracket, be used to justify the use of a maturity assessment method. Different methods should be used in conjunction as independent lines of evidence when assessing maturity, instead of an ontogenetic diagnosis resting entirely on a single criterion, which is common in the literature. Critically, there is a need for data from extant taxa with well‐represented growth series to be integrated with the fossil record to ground maturity assessments of extinct taxa in well‐constrained, empirically tested methods.

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Histological skeletochronology indicates developmental plasticity in the early Permian stem lissamphibian Doleserpeton annectens

Cited by 25 publications

References 61 publications

Climatic influence on the growth pattern ofPanthasaurus maleriensisfrom the Late Triassic of India deduced from paleohistology

Climatic influence on the growth pattern ofPanthasaurus maleriensisfrom the Late Triassic of India deduced from paleohistology

The paleobiology and paleoecology of South African Lystrosaurus

Assessing ontogenetic maturity in extinct saurian reptiles

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