Should the terms 'basal taxon' and 'transitional taxon' be extinguished from cladistic studies with extinct organisms?

Bronzati, Mario

doi:10.26879/173e

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(74 reference statements)

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“…Sauropodomorph dinosaurs include the largest terrestrial animals that ever lived on Earth (Rauhut et al, 2011 ; Sander & Clauss, 2008 ; Sander et al, 2011 ). Although these iconic long‐necked quadrupedal animals reached gigantic body sizes and masses around the node Sauropoda (Figure 1 ), the first representatives of this group, that is the non‐sauropodan sauropodomorphs (green and yellow clusters in Figure 1 , formerly known as ‘prosauropods’ Sereno, 2007 ; also known as ‘basal sauropodomorphs’, Martinez & Alcober, 2009 ; Langer et al, 2010 ; see Bronzati, 2017 ), were small to moderately large animals and mostly inferred to be partial to exclusively bipeds (Bonnan & Senter, 2007 ; Bonnan & Yates, 2007 ; Chapelle et al, 2020 ; Mallison, 2010a ; McPhee et al, 2014 ; Otero et al, 2017 , 2019 ). Conversely, sauropods (sensu Salgado et al, 1997 ; Figure 1 ) are obligatory quadrupeds: the appearance and diversification of the group Sauropoda within Sauropodomorpha is thus linked to the emergence of a new bauplan (or body plan; Rauhut et al, 2011 ; Sander et al, 2011 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A path to gigantism: Three‐dimensional study of the sauropodomorph limb long bone shape variation in the context of the emergence of the sauropod bauplan

Lefebvre

Houssaye

Mallison³

et al. 2022

Journal of Anatomy

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Sauropodomorph dinosaurs include the largest terrestrial animals that ever lived on Earth. The early representatives of this clade were, however, relatively small and partially to totally bipedal, conversely to the gigantic and quadrupedal sauropods. Although the sauropod bauplan is well defined, notably by the acquisition of columnar limbs, the evolutionary sequence leading to its emergence remains debated. Here, we aim to tackle this evolutionary episode by investigating shape variation in the six limb long bones for the first time using three‐dimensional geometric morphometrics. The morphological features of the forelimb zeugopod bones related to the sauropod bauplan tend to appear abruptly, whereas the pattern is more gradual for the hindlimb zeugopod bones. The stylopod bones tend to show the same pattern as their respective zeugopods. The abrupt emergence of the sauropod forelimb questions the locomotor abilities of non‐sauropodan sauropodomorphs inferred as quadrupeds. Features characterizing sauropods tend to corroborate a view of their locomotion mainly based on stylopod retraction. An allometric investigation of the shape variation in accordance with size highlight differences in hindlimb bone allometries between the sauropods and the non‐sauropodan sauropodomorphs. These differences notably correspond to an unexpected robustness decrease trend in the sauropod hindlimb zeugopod. In addition to forelimb bones that appear to be proportionally more gracile than in non‐sauropodan sauropodomorphs, sauropods may have relied on limb architecture and features related to the size increase, rather than general robustness, to deal with the role of weight‐bearing.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A path to gigantism: Three‐dimensional study of the sauropodomorph limb long bone shape variation in the context of the emergence of the sauropod bauplan

Lefebvre

Houssaye

Mallison³

et al. 2022

Journal of Anatomy

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“…To do the combination between cladistic and citizen science, it is important to transmit the information and the definitions in a clear and explicit way to reduce problems in communication when transmitting science to those outside the scientific community and even to scientists [36]. An example of this is the teaching of science to students.…”

Section: Importance Of Cladistic and Citizen Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“3D Cladistics”: a new perspective for phylogenetic analyses and a tool for citizen science

Venâncio,

Antunes,

Costa

2023

Academia Biology

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This study uses the cladistics method, three-dimensional (3D) illustration, and its importance for scientific communication in referring to phylogeny study. Since morphological cladistics presently is less used, we intend to innovate this analysis, so it becomes more perceptible visually, which may awaken interest in phylogenetic studies. We analyzed echinoderm genera Marthasterias (main analysis group) and Asterias (outgroup), and we did a 3D model of the organisms and their characteristics and the cladogram. As this study is based on morphological cladistic analysis, it has limitations concerning the data compilation, comparison, and synthesis. Nevertheless, it gives a wider view of the characters analyzed. This kind of visual communication is important to capture the attention of the general public, being an appealing way of communicating, allowing to improve science literacy. In the future, the 3D interactive graphics based on the cladistic analysis of the characters can be applied in museums, books, websites, and beyond.

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Should the terms 'basal taxon' and 'transitional taxon' be extinguished from cladistic studies with extinct organisms?

Cited by 2 publications

References 35 publications

A path to gigantism: Three‐dimensional study of the sauropodomorph limb long bone shape variation in the context of the emergence of the sauropod bauplan

A path to gigantism: Three‐dimensional study of the sauropodomorph limb long bone shape variation in the context of the emergence of the sauropod bauplan

“3D Cladistics”: a new perspective for phylogenetic analyses and a tool for citizen science

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