Increasing the impact of vertebrate scientific collections through 3D imaging: The openVertebrate (oVert) Thematic Collections Network.

The impact of preserved museum specimens is transforming and increasing by three-dimensional (3D) imaging that creates high-fidelity online digital specimens. Through examples from the openVertebrate (oVert) Thematic Collections Network, we describe how we created a digitization community dedicated to the shared vision of making 3D data of specimens available and the impact of these data on a broad audience of scientists, students, teachers, artists, and more. High-fidelity digital 3D models allow people from multiple communities to simultaneously access and use scientific specimens. Based on our multiyear, multi-institution project, we identify significant technological and social hurdles that remain for fully realizing the potential impact of digital 3D specimens.

Jaws for a spiral-tooth whorl: CT images reveal novel adaptation and phylogeny in fossil Helicoprion.

New CT scans of the spiral-tooth fossil, Helicoprion, resolve a longstanding mystery concerning the form and phylogeny of this ancient cartilaginous fish. We present the first three-dimensional images that show the tooth whorl occupying the entire mandibular arch, and which is supported along the midline of the lower jaw. Several characters of the upper jaw show that it articulated with the neurocranium in two places and that the hyomandibula was not part of the jaw suspension. These features identify Helicoprion as a member of the stem holocephalan group Euchondrocephali. Our reconstruction illustrates novel adaptations, such as lateral cartilage to buttress the tooth whorl, which accommodated the unusual trait of continuous addition and retention of teeth in a predatory chondrichthyan. Helicoprion exemplifies the climax of stem holocephalan diversification and body size in Late Palaeozoic seas, a role dominated today by sharks and rays.

Saws, Scissors, and Sharks: Late Paleozoic Experimentation with Symphyseal Dentition.

Sharks of Late Paleozoic oceans evolved unique dentitions for catching and eating soft bodied prey. A diverse but poorly preserved clade, edestoids are noted for developing biting teeth at the midline of their jaws. Helicoprion has a continuously growing root to accommodate >100 crowns that spiraled on top of one another to form a symphyseal whorl supported and laterally braced within the lower jaw. Reconstruction of jaw mechanics shows that individual serrated crowns grasped, sliced, and pulled prey items into the esophagus. A new description and interpretation of Edestus provides insight into the anatomy and functional morphology of another specialized edestoid. Edestus has opposing curved blades of teeth that are segmented and shed with growth of the animal. Set on a long jaw the lower blade closes with a posterior motion, effectively slicing prey across multiple opposing serrated crowns. Further examples of symphyseal whorls among Edestoidae are provided from previously undescribed North American examples of Toxoprion, Campyloprion, Agassizodus, and Sinohelicoprion. The symphyseal dentition in edestoids is associated with a rigid jaw suspension and may have arisen in response to an increase in pelagic cephalopod prey during the Late Paleozoic. Anat Rec, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Anat Rec, 303:363-376, 2020. © 2018 American Association for Anatomy.

Redefining species concepts for the Pennsylvanian scissor tooth shark, Edestus.

This study reevaluates the tooth morphology used to define species within the genus Edestus (Chondrichthyes, Euchondrocephali). Known as the scissor tooth shark, Edestus produced a unique dentition of spiraled tooth families positioned in the symphysis (midline) of the upper and lower jaws. Morphometric analysis of more than 200 ejected teeth and intact spiral tooth whorls demonstrates that teeth from the upper and lower whorls differ in shape and ontogeny. Comparison of these data to the type specimens of 13 existing species reduces the number of morphologically distinct Edestus to just four species and refines the stratigraphic occurrence and expansion of the group. E. triserratus has a narrow bullet-shaped crown that points anteriorly and has roots of intermediate length. E. minor crowns have a wider triangular base, whereas the crowns of E. heinrichi form nearly equilateral triangles and are supported by an elongated root. E. vorax, which also has roughly equilateral triangular crowns, has short and deep roots, and is only known from very large specimens that are distinct from the growth series of E. heinrichi. Tooth and whorl morphologies among the species are consistent with cranial anatomy observed in a juvenile E. heinrichi and with transverse tooth-wear patterns to suggest Edestus used a forward to backward slicing motion to bite its prey. Extrapolating body size from tooth whorl length provides a conservative estimate that E. heinrichi could exceed 6.7 m in length. Edestus fossils are recovered from coastal marine to estuarine deposits spanning roughly six million years (313-307 Ma). Edestus first appears in England during the latest Bashkirian (313 Ma, Carboniferous), a few million years after its most closely resembling genus Lestrodus. Diversification and range expansion of Edestus coincides with the Moscovian transgression that flooded Laurentia and the Russian platform.

Oligocene Termite Nests with In Situ Fungus Gardens from the Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania, Support a Paleogene African Origin for Insect Agriculture.

Based on molecular dating, the origin of insect agriculture is hypothesized to have taken place independently in three clades of fungus-farming insects: the termites, ants or ambrosia beetles during the Paleogene (66-24 Ma). Yet, definitive fossil evidence of fungus-growing behavior has been elusive, with no unequivocal records prior to the late Miocene (7-10 Ma). Here we report fossil evidence of insect agriculture in the form of fossil fungus gardens, preserved within 25 Ma termite nests from southwestern Tanzania. Using these well-dated fossil fungus gardens, we have recalibrated molecular divergence estimates for the origins of termite agriculture to around 31 Ma, lending support to hypotheses suggesting an African Paleogene origin for termite-fungus symbiosis; perhaps coinciding with rift initiation and changes in the African landscape.

Eating with a saw for a jaw: functional morphology of the jaws and tooth-whorl in Helicoprion davisii.

The recent reexamination of a tooth-whorl fossil of Helicoprion containing intact jaws shows that the symphyseal tooth-whorl occupies the entire length of Meckel's cartilage. Here, we use the morphology of the jaws and tooth-whorl to reconstruct the jaw musculature and develop a biomechanical model of the feeding mechanism in these early Permian predators. The jaw muscles may have generated large bite-forces; however, the mechanics of the jaws and whorl suggest that Helicoprion was better equipped for feeding on soft-bodied prey. Hard shelled prey would tend to slip anteriorly from the closing jaws due to the curvature of the tooth-whorl, lack of cuspate teeth on the palatoquadrate (PQ), and resistance of the prey. When feeding on soft-bodied prey, deformation of the prey traps prey tissue between the two halves of the PQ and the whorl. The curvature of the tooth-whorl and position of the exposed teeth relative to the jaw joint results in multiple tooth functions from anterior to posterior tooth that aid in feeding on soft-bodied prey. Posterior teeth cut and push prey deeper into the oral cavity, while middle teeth pierce and cut, and anterior teeth hook and drag more of the prey into the mouth. Furthermore, the anterior-posterior edges of the teeth facilitate prey cutting with jaw closure and jaw depression. The paths traveled by each tooth during jaw depression are reminiscent of curved pathways used with slashing weaponry such as swords and knifes. Thus, the jaws and tooth-whorl may have formed a multifunctional tool for capturing, processing, and transporting prey by cyclic opening and closing of the lower jaw in a sawing fashion.

The earliest evidence of holometabolan insect pupation in conifer wood.

BACKGROUND: The pre-Jurassic record of terrestrial wood borings is poorly resolved, despite body fossil evidence of insect diversification among xylophilic clades starting in the late Paleozoic. Detailed analysis of borings in petrified wood provides direct evidence of wood utilization by invertebrate animals, which typically comprises feeding behaviors. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We describe a U-shaped boring in petrified wood from the Late Triassic Chinle Formation of southern Utah that demonstrates a strong linkage between insect ontogeny and conifer wood resources. Xylokrypta durossi new ichnogenus and ichnospecies is a large excavation in wood that is backfilled with partially digested xylem, creating a secluded chamber. The tracemaker exited the chamber by way of a small vertical shaft. This sequence of behaviors is most consistent with the entrance of a larva followed by pupal quiescence and adult emergence--hallmarks of holometabolous insect ontogeny. Among the known body fossil record of Triassic insects, cupedid beetles (Coleoptera: Archostemata) are deemed the most plausible tracemakers of Xylokrypta, based on their body size and modern xylobiotic lifestyle. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This oldest record of pupation in fossil wood provides an alternative interpretation to borings once regarded as evidence for Triassic bees. Instead Xylokrypta suggests that early archostematan beetles were leaders in exploiting wood substrates well before modern clades of xylophages arose in the late Mesozoic.