Toyotamaphimeia cf. machikanensis (Crocodylia, Tomistominae) from the Middle Pleistocene of Osaka, Japan, and crocodylian survivorship through the Pliocene-Pleistocene climatic oscillations

Iijima, Masaya; Momohara, Arata; Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki; Hayashi, Sachio; Ikeda, Tadahiro; Taruno, Hiroyuki; Watanabe, Katsunori; Tanimoto, Masahiro; Furui, Sora

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.02.002

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…4B) (Miller et al, 2005;Zachos et al, 2008) (Appendix S2 in Supplemental Data 2). Variation in latitudinal range according to climatic variations has been observed in the Japanese tomistomine Toyotamaphimeia machikanensis (Iijima et al, 2018) and was suggested for European Eocene tomistomines (Jouve, 2016).…”

Section: Paleogene Climate Sea Level and Longirostrine Crocodylian mentioning

confidence: 96%

Longirostrine crocodylians from the Bartonian of Morocco and Paleogene climatic and sea level oscillations in the Peri-Tethys area

Jouve¹,

Khalloufi

Zouhri

2019

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

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The Eocene-Oligocene transition was a period of high faunal and floral turnover, often correlated with climatic deterioration. Crocodyliforms are climate sensitive, and they have been often used for reconstruction of paleoclimates. The description of crocodylian material from the Bartonian of Aaiun-Tarfaya Basin (Morocco) allows the recognition of at least two longirostrine crocodylians, including a gavialoid. This identification is important, because the migration of gavialoids to South America probably occurred during the late Eocene. Close relationships between late Eocene-early Oligocene Eogavialis africanum from Egypt, Argochampsa krebsi from the Paleocene of Morocco, and the South American gavialoid clade suggests that Morocco could have had a particular place in the gavialoid dispersal route to South America. The resemblance between Moroccan material described herein and E. africanum is thus important in this context. Analysis of the distribution of longirostrine crocodylians in the Peri-Tethys area through the Eocene-Oligocene shows a strong difference in the evolution of the distribution between longirostrine crocodylians and Diplocynodon. Whereas the freshwater Diplocynodon has a continuous distribution in western Europe, the mainly marine longirostrine crocodylians have a northern maximal expansion that moves southward during the middle Eocene, being restricted to North Africa during late Eocene-early Oligocene. European freshwater Asiatosuchus-like taxa also disappear during the late Eocene. Climatic deterioration, helped by sea level oscillations, may have strongly impacted the diversity and latitudinal distribution of the crocodylians, but we highlight a possible differential tolerance in range of climatic conditions between crocodylians. This could help to refine the use of crocodylians as paleoclimatic proxies.

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Section: Paleogene Climate Sea Level and Longirostrine Crocodylian mentioning

confidence: 96%

Longirostrine crocodylians from the Bartonian of Morocco and Paleogene climatic and sea level oscillations in the Peri-Tethys area

Jouve¹,

Khalloufi

Zouhri

2019

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

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“…The earliest diverging members of non-tomistomine Gavialidae are two species that we might predict should be close relatives of Tomistoma schlegelii, given their spatiotemporal distribution. These are Penghusuchus pani from the late Miocene of Taiwan (Shan et al, 2009) and Toyotamaphimeia machikanensis from the Pleistocene (and possibly Pliocene too) of Japan (Kobatake et al, 1965;Kobayashi et al, 2006;Iijima et al, 2018). Yet, previous analyses have also failed to recover a close relationship between these taxa and Tomistoma schlegelii (Shan et al, 2009;Jouve, 2016;Lee & Yates, 2018;Iijima & Kobayashi, 2019), and thus might indicate the presence of several gavialid lineages in the late Neogene-Quaternary of east and southeast Asia.…”

Section: Gavialoideamentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic analysis of a new morphological dataset elucidates the evolutionary history of Crocodylia and resolves the long-standing gharial problem

Rio

Mannion

2021

PeerJ

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First appearing in the latest Cretaceous, Crocodylia is a clade of semi-aquatic, predatory reptiles, defined by the last common ancestor of extant alligators, caimans, crocodiles, and gharials. Despite large strides in resolving crocodylian interrelationships over the last three decades, several outstanding problems persist in crocodylian systematics. Most notably, there has been persistent discordance between morphological and molecular datasets surrounding the affinities of the extant gharials, Gavialis gangeticus and Tomistoma schlegelii. Whereas molecular data consistently support a sister taxon relationship, in which they are more closely related to crocodylids than to alligatorids, morphological data indicate that Gavialis is the sister taxon to all other extant crocodylians. Here we present a new morphological dataset for Crocodylia based on a critical reappraisal of published crocodylian character data matrices and extensive firsthand observations of a global sample of crocodylians. This comprises the most taxonomically comprehensive crocodylian dataset to date (144 OTUs scored for 330 characters) and includes a new, illustrated character list with modifications to the construction and scoring of characters, and 46 novel characters. Under a maximum parsimony framework, our analyses robustly recover Gavialis as more closely related to Tomistoma than to other extant crocodylians for the first time based on morphology alone. This result is recovered regardless of the weighting strategy and treatment of quantitative characters. However, analyses using continuous characters and extended implied weighting (with high k-values) produced the most resolved, well-supported, and stratigraphically congruent topologies overall. Resolution of the gharial problem reveals that: (1) several gavialoids lack plesiomorphic features that formerly drew them towards the stem of Crocodylia; and (2) more widespread similarities occur between species traditionally divided into tomistomines and gavialoids, with these interpreted here as homology rather than homoplasy. There remains significant temporal incongruence regarding the inferred divergence timing of the extant gharials, indicating that several putative gavialids (‘thoracosaurs’) are incorrectly placed and require future re-appraisal. New alligatoroid interrelationships include: (1) support for a North American origin of Caimaninae in the latest Cretaceous; (2) the recovery of the early Paleogene South American taxon Eocaiman as a ‘basal’ alligatoroid; and (3) the paraphyly of the Cenozoic European taxon Diplocynodon. Among crocodyloids, notable results include modifications to the taxonomic content of Mekosuchinae, including biogeographic affinities of this clade with latest Cretaceous–early Paleogene Asian crocodyloids. In light of our new results, we provide a comprehensive review of the evolutionary and biogeographic history of Crocodylia, which included multiple instances of transoceanic and continental dispersal.

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“…T . machikanensis (reported by Iijima et al, 2018), Melitosaurus champsoides Owen, 1849, Tomistoma calaritanum Capellini, 1890, Tomistoma gaudense (Hulke, 1871) (reported by Nicholl et al, 2020), and NTUM-VP 200702 (a partial skull from another locality in Taiwan). We also modified Character 145 to a multistate character with (three states) based on Nicholl et al (2020) and updated the scorings of Toyotamaphimeia machikanensis and Penghusuchus pani Shan et al, 2009.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crocodylian princess in Taiwan: Revising the taxonomic status of Tomistoma taiwanicus from the Pleistocene of Taiwan and its paleobiogeographic implications

Cho

Tsai

2023

J. Paleontol.

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Toyotamaphimeia is an extinct crocodylian lineage whose name is derived from a mythological Japanese princess. Here, we re-examine the type specimens of a long-forgotten species: Tomistoma taiwanicus from the Pleistocene of Tainan (Taiwan) and revise its taxonomic status to Toyotamaphimeia taiwanicus n. comb., leading to the first recognized species of Toyotamaphimeia outside Japan. Our phylogenetic analyses also support this taxonomic assignment and, more interestingly, further suggest an East Asian lineage. In addition, Toyotamaphimeia taiwanicus n. comb. represents a tropical species, resolving a long-standing puzzle of why Toyotamaphimeia only inhabited a much higher latitudinal area (Japan). Given the large body size of Toyotamaphimeia taiwanicus n. comb. (~7 m) and the fact that it is geologically older than Toyotamaphimeia machikanensis from Japan, we propose a novel evolutionary scenario: the genus Toyotamaphimeia originated in Taiwan and evolved to a large body size with gigantothermic physiology, which resulted in migration out of Taiwan and dispersal farther north to Japan. Our taxonomic identification shows the presence of an extinct endemic crocodylian species from the Pleistocene of Taiwan with large-scale paleogeographic implications. This study, with our recent progress in vertebrate paleontology in Taiwan, should provoke more in-depth paleontological research on the Pleistocene extinction.

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Toyotamaphimeia cf. machikanensis (Crocodylia, Tomistominae) from the Middle Pleistocene of Osaka, Japan, and crocodylian survivorship through the Pliocene-Pleistocene climatic oscillations

Cited by 10 publications

References 51 publications

Longirostrine crocodylians from the Bartonian of Morocco and Paleogene climatic and sea level oscillations in the Peri-Tethys area

Longirostrine crocodylians from the Bartonian of Morocco and Paleogene climatic and sea level oscillations in the Peri-Tethys area

Phylogenetic analysis of a new morphological dataset elucidates the evolutionary history of Crocodylia and resolves the long-standing gharial problem

Crocodylian princess in Taiwan: Revising the taxonomic status of Tomistoma taiwanicus from the Pleistocene of Taiwan and its paleobiogeographic implications

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