Oldest southern sauropterygian reveals early marine reptile globalization.
Curr Biol
; 34(12): R562-R563, 2024 Jun 17.
Article
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| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38889674
ABSTRACT
Sauropterygians were the stratigraphically longest-ranging clade of Mesozoic marine reptiles with a global fossil record spanning â¼180 million years1. However, their early evolution has only been known from what is now the Northern Hemisphere, extending across the northern and trans-equatorial western margins of the Tethys paleo-ocean1 after the late-Early Triassic (late Olenekian, â¼248.8 million years [Ma] ago2), and via possible trans-Arctic migration1 to the Eastern Panthalassa super-ocean prior to the earliest Middle Triassic (Olenekian-earliest Anisian3,4, â¼247 Ma). Here, we describe the geologically oldest sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere - a nothosaur (basal sauropterygian5) from the Middle Triassic (Anisian, after â¼246 Ma6) of New Zealand. Time-scaled ancestral range estimations thus reveal an unexpected circum-Gondwanan high-paleolatitude (>60° S7) dispersal from a northern Tethyan origination center. This coincides with the adaptive diversification of sauropterygians after the end-Permian mass extinction8 and suggests that rapid globalization accompanied their initial radiation in the earliest Mesozoic.
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1
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Reptiles
/
Evolución Biológica
/
Fósiles
País/Región como asunto:
Oceania
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Curr Biol
Asunto de la revista:
BIOLOGIA
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article