Turonian marine amniotes from the Opole area in southwest Poland

Sachs, Sven; Jagt, John W.M.; Niedźwiedzki, Robert; Kędzierski, Mariusz; Jagt‐Yazykova, Elena A.; Kear, Benjamin P.

doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2017.12.002

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Sachs et al . 2016 b , c ; Madzia & Machalski, 2017; Madzia et al . 2017; Sachs et al 2018), rendering the taxon itself a nomen dubium .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, Madzia (2016) recently concluded that the dental material ascribed to P. interruptus does not show any autapomorphies and hypothesized that it is most likely too variable to represent a single species, prompting a revision of all other specimens attributed to this historical taxon (such studies are currently being undertaken; e.g. Sachs et al 2016b,c;Madzia & Machalski, 2017;Sachs et al 2018), rendering the taxon itself a nomen dubium. Indeed, detailed assessments of the dental morphology of pliosaurids with well-preserved dentitions might be crucial for these studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Morphological and phylogenetic aspects of the dentition of Megacephalosaurus eulerti, a pliosaurid from the Turonian of Kansas, USA, with remarks on the cranial anatomy of the taxon

Madzia

Sachs²

2018

Geol. Mag.

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Megacephalosaurus eulerti is a large macropredatory plesiosaur representing one of the last members of the diverse pliosaurid clade Brachaucheninae. The taxon was established upon a nearly complete skull including the mandible and fragments of the postcranial skeleton originating from the lower middle Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) of Kansas, USA. Owing to its age, reasonable completeness and its state of preservation, M. eulerti bears important anatomical details regarding the last brachauchenines. Here we assess the dentition of the taxon, compare the teeth to those of other thalassophonean pliosaurids and comment on the utility of these results for inferences of the phylogenetic relationships of the last brachauchenines. Additionally, we provide remarks on the cranial anatomy of M. eulerti, revise character scores of this taxon used in current phylogenetic studies and address the phylogenetic relationships within Brachaucheninae. Parsimony analyses, aimed to test different character sampling and tree-search strategy, inferred only a single unambiguous synapomorphy uniting a clade formed by mid- to Late Cretaceous brachauchenines: presence of subcircular rather than subtrihedral/trihedral cross-sectional shape of the teeth. Still, the last brachauchenines (Brachauchenius and Megacephalosaurus) can be roughly characterized by a switch from anisodont to subisodont dentition and reduction of their tooth count. Nevertheless, the overall knowledge of the origin, phylogenetic relationships and distinguishability of brachauchenine pliosaurids remains poor and represents a subject for further extensive studies and modifications in taxon and character sampling.

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“…Sachs et al . 2016 b , c ; Madzia & Machalski, 2017; Madzia et al . 2017; Sachs et al 2018), rendering the taxon itself a nomen dubium .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological and phylogenetic aspects of the dentition of Megacephalosaurus eulerti, a pliosaurid from the Turonian of Kansas, USA, with remarks on the cranial anatomy of the taxon

Madzia

Sachs²

2018

Geol. Mag.

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“…Turonian tetrapod remains from Poland are very rare and currently known only from a few sites in the Opole area (southwestern Poland). They were recently reviewed by Sachs et al (2018) who described a few polycotylid plesiosaur teeth, an unidentified plesiosaur limb bone and a probable russellosaurinan mosasaur tooth ( Sachs et al, 2018 ). Most of these specimens were discovered already in the second half of the 19th century and were first described by Leonhard (1897) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of these specimens were discovered already in the second half of the 19th century and were first described by Leonhard (1897) . One of them was a postcranial bone discovered by Schumann, an officer at the Ministry of Defence ( Sachs et al, 2018 ). This fossil was originally identified as a plesiosaur phalanx by Leonhard (1897) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He described it as ‘Plesiosauridarum gen.’ which can be translated as ‘plesiosaurid genus’. Sachs et al (2018) were unable to locate this specimen but based on the illustration provided by Leonhard (1897) , reidentified it as a damaged mosasauroid vertebra. Recently, I found this fossil in the collection of the Department of Palaeozoology, University of Wrocław.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rediscovery and redescription of the only known mosasaur bone from the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) of Poland

Skawiński¹

2022

PeerJ

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Mosasaur remains from Poland are very rare and are restricted mostly to the Campanian and Maastrichtian. The only currently known pre-Campanian records come from the Turonian strata in the Opole area, southwestern Poland. One of them is a single tooth which probably belongs to a yaguarasaurine while the other is an incomplete vertebra, for many years considered lost. The latter specimen has recently been found and is redescribed in this article. Its most characteristic feature is a strong dorsoventral compression of the articular surfaces. This is similar to the condition observed in basal mosasauroids such as halisaurines and tethysaurines. Unfortunately, due to its incompleteness, the rediscovered specimen cannot be confidently referred to any of these clades and can only be described as a probable non-mosasaurine, non-plioplatecarpine, non-tylosaurine mosasauroid. Despite its uncertain phylogenetic position, it is important from a historical point of view and as only the second record (and the only bone record) of mosasauroids from the Turonian of Poland.

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