Reassessment and reassignment of the early Maastrichtian mosasaurHainosaurus bernardiDollo, 1885, toTylosaurusMarsh, 1872

Mosasauroid phylogeny under multiple phylogenetic methods provides new insights on the evolution of aquatic adaptations in the group

“…Despite the change in the outgroup, and minor updates in the ingroup taxa and scorings, the analysis with Co-UMP (the coding and search method used by most mosasauroid phylogenies) provided results (Fig 1A) that are generally similar to the most recent analyses of mosasauroid relationships [12, 25, 26]. Namely, aigialosaurs lie at the base of the lineage leading to mosasaurids; Mosasaurinae is monophyletic (and inclusive of Halisaurinae and Dallasaurus ); and Russellosaurina is also monophyletic (inclusive of yaguarasaurines, tethysaurines, plioplatecarpines and tylosaurines).…”

Inferring ‘weak spots’ in phylogenetic trees: application to mosasauroid nomenclature

“… Leblanc, Caldwell & Bardet ( 2012 : 101) argued to replace Plotosaurini with Mosasaurini which they used for “the group consisting of ( Eremiasaurus ( Mosasaurus + Plotosaurus ))”. Although the close connection of these taxa is generally supported by recent phylogenetic studies (e.g., Grigoriev, 2013 ; Palci, Caldwell & Papazzoni, 2013 ; Fanti, Cau & Negri, 2014 ; Jiménez-Huidobro & Caldwell, 2016 ), analyses using multiple tree-search strategies show conflicting results ( Simões et al, 2017 ). The grouping is maintained in the ‘unweighted-unordered’ parsimony analysis, under one ‘weighted-unordered’ parsimony analysis ( Fig.…”

“…Contrary to the outgroup used by previous analyses of mosasauroid affinities (‘composite’ outgroup and Varanus , see below and ‘Discussion’), Simões et al (2017) added three early Late Cretaceous non-mosasauroid squamates, Adriosaurus suessi Seeley, 1881 , Dolichosaurus longicollis Owen, 1850 , and Pontosaurus kornhuberi Caldwell, 2006 , and selected A. suessi as the root of the topologies. This outgroup selection is more realistic than the strategy followed in other recent analyses of Mosasauroidea, that use the extant and distantly-related Varanus (e.g., Palci, Caldwell & Papazzoni, 2013 ; Jiménez-Huidobro & Caldwell, 2016 ; Otero et al, 2017 ), since it assumes that the ancestral mosasauroid morphology is likely represented by the simplesiomorphies shared by penecontemporary semi-aquatic squamates close to the mosasauroid root. Furthermore, the use of Cenomanian squamates as mosasauroid outgroups does not violate uniform sampling rate required by the use of the FBDSA model.…”

“…The hypotheses of mosasauroid interrelationships appear to be less problematic. Phylogenetic studies frequently reconstruct the clades Halisaurinae, Mosasaurinae, Tylosaurinae, and Plioplatecarpinae (e.g., Bardet et al, 2005 ; Bell & Polcyn, 2005 ; Cuthbertson et al, 2007 ; Bullard & Caldwell, 2010 ; Fanti, Cau & Negri, 2014 ; Leblanc, Caldwell & Bardet, 2012 ; Jiménez-Huidobro & Caldwell, 2016 ), and a lineage of early-branching mosasaurids consisting of two branches that have recently been named Tethysaurinae and Yaguarasaurinae ( Makádi, Caldwell & Ösi, 2012 ; Palci, Caldwell & Papazzoni, 2013 ; respectively).…”

“…The data set was first introduced in Bell ’s ( 1993 ) PhD thesis and formally published four years later ( Bell, 1997 ). It was subsequently modified by inclusion of additional taxa and revision of characters and their states (see, e. g., Christiansen & Bonde, 2002 ; Dortangs et al, 2002 ; Bell & Polcyn, 2005 ; Polcyn & Bell, 2005 ; Bullard, 2006 ; Dutchak & Caldwell, 2006 ; Schulp, 2006 ; Schulp et al, 2006 ; Caldwell & Palci, 2007 ; Cuthbertson et al, 2007 ; Polcyn & Everhart, 2008 ; Dutchak & Caldwell, 2009 ; Fernandez & Martin, 2009 ; Leblanc, Caldwell & Bardet, 2012 ; Makádi, Caldwell & Ösi, 2012 ; Grigoriev, 2013 ; Palci, Caldwell & Papazzoni, 2013 ; Fanti, Cau & Negri, 2014 ; Jiménez-Huidobro & Caldwell, 2016 ; Otero et al, 2017 ; Simões et al, 2017 ).…”