Oldest southern sauropterygian reveals early marine reptile globalization.
Curr Biol
; 34(12): R562-R563, 2024 Jun 17.
Article
in En
| 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.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Reptiles
/
Biological Evolution
/
Fossils
Limits:
Animals
Country/Region as subject:
Oceania
Language:
En
Journal:
Curr Biol
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Country of publication:
United kingdom