Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T01:09:43.844Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

In utero foetal remains of the Cretaceous ichthyosaurian Platypterygius: ontogenetic implications for character state efficacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2013

BENJAMIN P. KEAR  and
MARIA ZAMMIT
BENJAMIN P. KEAR*
Affiliation:
Palaeobiology Programme, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
MARIA ZAMMIT
Affiliation:
South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia
*
†Author for correspondence: benjamin.kear@geo.uu.se
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ichthyosaurians provide some of the most famous examples of ‘live birth’ in the amniote fossil record based on spectacular complete skeletons of gravid females. Such remains facilitate direct comparisons between adult and foetal life stages, and thus have significant impact on phylogenetic hypotheses that require discrete character states to be ontogenetically uncoupled. This is especially true for Cretaceous ichthyosaurian taxa, the majority of which have been established using single specimens of assumed osteological maturity. Our assessment of in utero ichthyosaurian remains from the late Albian of Australia was therefore aimed at testing ontogenetic stability amongst key traits defining the most ubiquitous Cretaceous taxon: Platypterygius. Surprisingly, almost all of the salient features were identifiable in our sample of undoubtedly immature individuals. Indeed, only the proportions of the sclerotic ring, relative ossification and fusion of various basicranial elements, development of the axial skeleton, prominence of the deltopectoral crest and dorsal trochanter, and formation (but seemingly not number) of distal articular facets on the humerus were found to vary from larger-bodied members of the same species (P. australis). Ontogenetic continuity amongst the majority of other phylogenetically pertinent skeletal structures advocates their application for cladistic analyses, and suggests that many classic characters used to differentiate Platypterygius remain diagnostic irrespective of growth stage.

Keywords

Ophthalmosauriaosteological developmentphylogenydiagnostic traits
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 151 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 71 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, C. W. 1910. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Marine Reptiles of the Oxford Clay, Based on the Leeds Collection in the British Museum (Natural History), London, Part I. London: British Museum (Natural History), 205 pp.Google Scholar
Andrews, P. 1990. Owls, Caves and Fossils. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 239 pp.Google Scholar
Appleby, R. M. 1956. The osteology and taxonomy of the fossil reptile Ophthalmosaurus . Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 126, 403–47.Google Scholar
Arkhangelsky, M. S. 1998. On the ichthyosaurian genus Platypterygius . Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal 32, 65–9.Google Scholar
Bardet, N. 1990. Dental cross-sections in Cretaceous Ichthyopterygia: systematic implications. Geobios 23, 169–72.Google Scholar
Bardet, N, & Fernandez, M. 2000. A new ichthyosaur from the Upper Jurassic lithographic limestones of Bavaria. Journal of Paleontology 74, 503–11.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bardet, N., Wellnhofer, P. & Herm, D. 1994. Discovery of ichthyosaur remains (Reptilia) in the upper Cenomanian of Bavaria. Mitteilungen der Bayerschen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und historische Geologie 34, 213–20.Google Scholar
Baur, G. 1887. Uber der Ursprung der Extremitäten der Ichthyopterygia. Berichte über die Versammlungen des Oberrheinischen Vereines 20, 17–20.Google Scholar
de la Beche, H. T. & Conybeare, W. D. 1821. Notice on the discovery of a new fossil animal forming a link between the Ichthyosaurus and the crocodile, together with general remarks on the osteology of the Ichthyosaurus . Transactions of the Geological Society of London 5, 559–94.Google Scholar
Blackburn, D. G. 2000. Classification of the reproductive patterns of amniotes. Herpetological Monographs 14, 371–7.Google Scholar
Böttcher, R. 1990. Neue Erkenntnisse über die Fortpflanzungsbiologie der Ichthyosaurier (Reptilia). Stuttgarter Beiträge Naturkunde B 164, 1–51.Google Scholar
Brinkmann, W. 1996 Ein Mixosaurier (Reptilia, Ichthyosauria) mit Embryonen aus der Grenzbitumenzone (Mitteltrias) des Monte San Georgio (Schweiz, Kanton Tessin). Eclogae Geologicae Helveticae 89, 1321–44.Google Scholar
Broili, F. 1907. Ein neuer Ichthyosaurus aus der norddeutschen Kreide. Palaeontographica 54, 139–62.Google Scholar
Broili, F. 1909. Neue Ichthyosaurierreste aus der Kreide Norddeustschlands und das Hypophysenloch bei Ichthyosauriern. Palaeontographica 55, 295–302.Google Scholar
Camp, C. L. 1976. Vorläufige Mitteilung über große Ichthyosaurier aus der oberen Trias von Nevada. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteilung I 185, 125–34.Google Scholar
Camp, C. L. 1980. Large ichthyosaurs from the Upper Triassic of Nevada. Palaeontographica A 170, 139–200.Google Scholar
Caldwell, M. W. 1997 a. Limb ossification patterns of the ichthyosaur Stenopterygius, and a discussion of the proximal tarsal row of ichthyosaurs and other neodiapsid reptiles. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 120, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, M. W. 1997 b. Modified perichondral ossification and the evolution of paddle-like limbs in ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 17, 534–47.Google Scholar
Dal Sasso, C. & Pinna, G. 1996. Besanosaurus leptorhynchus n. gen. n. sp., a new shastasaurid ichthyosaur from the Middle Triassic of Besano (Lombardy, N. Italy). Paleontologia Lombarda 4, 1–23.Google Scholar
Deeming, D. C. & Ferguson, M. W. J. 1990. Morphometric analysis of embryonic development in Alligator mississippiensis, Crocodylus johnstoni and Crocodylus porosus . Journal of Zoology, London 221, 419–39.Google Scholar
Deeming, D. C., Halstead, L. B., Manabe, M. & Unwin, D. M. 1993. An ichthyosaur embryo from the Lower Lias (Jurassic: Hettangian) of Somerset, England, with comments on the reproductive biology of ichthyosaurs. Modern Geology 18, 423–42.Google Scholar
Druckenmiller, P. S., Hurum, J. H., Knutsen, E. M. & Nakrem, A. A. 2012. Two new ophthalmosaurids (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) from the Ardhfjellet Formation (Upper Jurassic/Tithonian), Svalbard, Norway. Norwegian Journal of Geology 92, 311–39.Google Scholar
Druckenmiller, P. S. & Maxwell, E. E. 2010. A new lower Cretaceous (lower Albian) ichthyosaur genus from the Clearwater Formation, Alberta, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 47, 1037–53.Google Scholar
Fernández, M. 1997. A new ichthyosaur from the Tithonian (Late Jurassic) of the Neuquén Basin, northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. Journal of Paleontology 71, 479–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernández, M. S. 1999. A new ichthyosaur from the Los Molles Formation (Early Bajocian), Neuquén basin, Argentina. Journal of Paleontology 73, 677–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernández, M. 2007. Redescription and phylogenetic position of Caypullisaurus (Ichthyosauria: Ophthalmosauridae). Journal of Paleontology 81, 368–75.Google Scholar
Fernández, M., Archuby, F., Talevi, M. & Ebner, R. 2005. Ichthyosaurian eyes: paleobiological information content in the sclerotic ring of Caypullisaurus (Ichthyosauria, Ophthalmosauria). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25, 330–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, V. 2012. New data on the ichthyosaur Platypterygius hercynicus and its implications for the validity of the genus. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 57, 123–34.Google Scholar
Fischer, V., Maisch, M. W., Naish, D., Kosma, R., Liston, J., Joger, U., Krüger, F. J., Pardo Perez, J., Tanish, J. & Appleby, R. M. 2012. New ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs from the European Lower Cretaceous demonstrate extensive ichthyosaur survival across the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary. PLoS ONE 7, e29234.Google Scholar
Fischer, V., Masure, E., Arkhangelsky, M. S. & Godefroit, P. 2011. A new Barremian (Early Cretaceous) ichthyosaur from western Russia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31, 1010–25.Google Scholar
Jaekel, O. 1904. Die Wirbeltiere Eine Übersicht über die Fossilen und Lebenden Formen. Berlin: Gebrüder Borntraeger, 252 pp.Google Scholar
Johnson, R. 1977. Size independent criteria for estimating relative age and the relationship among growth parameters in a group of fossil reptiles (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria). Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 14, 1916–24.Google Scholar
von Huene, F. 1922. Die Ichthyosaurier des Lias und ihre Zusammenhänge. Monographien zur Geologie und Paläontologie 1. Berlin: Gebrüder Borntraeger, 144. pp.Google Scholar
Kear, B. P. 2003. Cretaceous marine reptiles of Australia: a review of taxonomy and distribution. Cretaceous Research 24, 277–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kear, B. P. 2005. Cranial morphology of Platypterygius longmani Wade, 1990 (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) from the Lower Cretaceous of Australia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 145, 583–622.Google Scholar
Kear, B. P., Boles, W. E. & Smith, E. T. 2003. Unusual gut contents in a Cretaceous ichthyosaur. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 270, S206–8.Google Scholar
Kear, B. P. & Hamilton-Bruce, R. J. 2011. Dinosaurs in Australia. Mesozoic Life from the Southern Continent. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, 190 pp.Google Scholar
Kiprijanoff, W. 1881. Studien über die fossilen Reptilien Russlands. Theil 1. Gattung Ichthyosaurus König aus dem Sewerischen Sandstein oder Osteolith der Kreide-Gruppe. Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg, VII Serie 28, 1–103.Google Scholar
Kolb, C., & Sander, P. M. 2009. Redescription of the ichthyosaur Platypterygius hercynicus (Kuhn 1946) from the Lower Cretaceous of Salzgitter (Lower Saxony, Germany). Palaeontographica Abteilung A 288, 151–92.Google Scholar
Kuhn, O. 1946. Ein Skelett von Ichthyosaurus (Platypterygius) hercynicus n. sp. aus dem Aptium von Gitter. Bericht der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft Bamberg 29, 69–82.Google Scholar
Lee, M. S. Y. & Shine, R. 1998. Reptilian viviparity and Dollo's law. Evolution 52, 1441–50.Google Scholar
Lomax, D. R. & Massare, , , J. A. 2012. The first reported Leptonectes (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) with associated embryos, from Somerset, England. Paludicola 8, 263–76.Google Scholar
Longman, H. A. 1922. An ichthyosaurian skull from Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 7, 246–56.Google Scholar
Maisch, M. W. & Matzke, A. T. 1997. Mikadocephalus gracilirostris n. gen., n. sp., a new ichthyosaur from the Grenzbitumenzone (Anisian-Landinian) of Monte San Giorgio (Switzerland). Paläontologische Zeitschrift 71, 267–89.Google Scholar
Maisch, M. W. & Matzke, A. T. 2000. The Ichthyosauria. Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie) 298, 1–159.Google Scholar
Maxwell, E. E. 2010. Generic reassignment of an ichthyosaur from the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Northwest Territories, Canada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30, 403–15.Google Scholar
Maxwell, E. E. 2012. New metrics to differentiate species of Stenopterygius (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) from the Lower Jurassic of southwestern Germany. Journal of Paleontology 86, 105–15.Google Scholar
Maxwell, E. E. & Caldwell, M. W. 2003. First record of live birth in Cretaceous ichthyosaurs: closing an 80 million year gap. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 270, S104–7.Google Scholar
Maxwell, E. E. & Caldwell, M. W. 2006. A new genus of ichthyosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Western Canada. Palaeontology 49, 1043–52.Google Scholar
Maxwell, E. E., Caldwell, M. W. & Lamoureux, D. O. 2011. Tooth histology in the Cretaceous ichthyosaur Platypterygius australis, and its significance for the conservation and divergence of mineralized tooth tissues in amniotes. Journal of Morphology 272, 129–35.Google Scholar
Maxwell, E. E., Fernández, M. S. & Schoch, R. 2012. First diagnostic marine reptile remains from the Aalenian (Middle Jurassic): a new ichthyosaur from southwestern Germany. PLoS ONE 7, e41692.Google Scholar
Maxwell, E. E. & Kear, B. P. 2010. Postcranial anatomy of Platypterygius americanus (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) from the Cretaceous of Wyoming. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30, 1059–68.Google Scholar
McCoy, F. 1867. On the occurrence of Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus in Australia. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Third Series 19, 355–6.Google Scholar
McGowan, C. 1972. The systematics of Cretaceous ichthyosaurs with particular reference to the material from North America. Contributions to Geology, University of Wyoming 11, 9–29.Google Scholar
McGowan, C. 1973. Differential growth in three ichthyosaurs: Ichthyosaurus communis, I. breviceps, and Stenopterygius quadriscissus (Reptilia, Ichthyosauria). Life Science Contributions, Royal Ontario Museum 93, 1–21.Google Scholar
McGowan, C. 1976. The description and phenetic relationships of a new ichthyosaur genus from the Upper Jurassic of England. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 13, 668–83.Google Scholar
McGowan, C. 1979. A revision of the Lower Jurassic ichthyosaurs of Germany with descriptions of two new species. Palaeontographica Abteilung A 166, 93–135.Google Scholar
McGowan, C. 1996. The taxonomic status of Leptopterygius Huene, 1922 (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria). Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 33, 439–43.Google Scholar
McGowan, C. & Motani, R. 2003. Ichthyopterygia. Handbook of Paleoherpetology, Volume 8. München: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, 175 pp.Google Scholar
McMinn, A. & Burger, D. 1986. Palynology and palaeoenvironment of the Toolebuc Formation (sensu lato) in the Eromanga Basin. In Contributions to the Geology and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Eromanga Basin (eds Gravestock, D. I., Moore, P. S. & Pitt, G. M.), pp. 139–54. Geological Society of Australia, Special Publication no. 12.Google Scholar
Moore, P. S., Pitt, G. M. & Dettmann, M. E. 1986. The Early Cretaceous Coorikiana Sandstone and Toolebuc Formation: their recognition and stratigraphic relationship in the southwestern Eromanga Basin. In Contributions to the Geology and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Eromanga Basin (eds Gravestock, D. I., Moore, P. S. & Pitt, G. M.), pp. 97–114. Geological Society of Australia, Special Publication no. 12.Google Scholar
Motani, R. 1999. On the evolution and homologies of ichthyopterygian forefins. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 19, 28–41.Google Scholar
Motani, R. & You, H. 1998. Taxonomy and limb ontogeny of Chaohusaurus geishanensis (Ichthyosauria), with a note on the allometric equation. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18, 533–40.Google Scholar
Nace, R. L. 1939. A new ichthyosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Mowry Formation of Wyoming. American Journal of Science 237, 673–86.Google Scholar
Nace, R. L. 1941. A new ichthyosaur from the Late Cretaceous, Northeast Wyoming. American Journal of Science 239, 908–14.Google Scholar
Ochev, V. G. & Efimov, V. M. 1985. A new genus of ichthyosaur from the Ul'yanovsk area of the Povolzh'ye region. Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal 1985, 76–80.Google Scholar
O'Keefe, F. R. & Chiappe, L. M. 2011. Viviparity and K-selected life history in a Mesozoic marine plesiosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia). Science 333, 870–3.Google Scholar
O'Keefe, F. R., Street, H. P., Cavigelli, J. P., Socha, J. J. & O'Keefe, R. D. 2009. A plesiosaur containing an ichthyosaur embryo as stomach contents from the Sundance Formation of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29, 1306–10.Google Scholar
Páramo, M. E. 1997. Platypterygius sachicarum (Reptilia, Ichthyosauria) nueva especie del Cretacico de Colombia. Revista Ingeominas 6, 1–12.Google Scholar
Quenstedt, F. A. 1856. Der Jura. Tübingen: H. Laupp, 842 pp.Google Scholar
Rieppel, O. 1993. Studies on skeleton formation in reptiles. V. Patterns of ossification in the skeleton of Alligator mississippiensis (Reptilia, Crocodylia). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 109, 301–25.Google Scholar
Romer, A. S. 1968. An ichthyosaur skull from the Cretaceous of Wyoming. Contributions to Geology, University of Wyoming 7, 27–41.Google Scholar
Sander, P. M. 2000. Ichthyosauria: their diversity, distribution, and phylogeny. Paläontologishche Zeitschrift 74, 1–35.Google Scholar
Seeley, H. G. 1874. On the pectoral arch and forelimb of Ophthalmosaurus, a new ichthyosaurian genus from the Oxford Clay. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 30, 696–707.Google Scholar
Talevi, M. & Fernández, M. S. 2012. Unexpected skeletal histology of an ichthyosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Patagonia: implications for evolution of bone microstructure among secondary aquatic tetrapods. Naturwissenschaften 99, 241–4.Google Scholar
Wade, M. 1984. Platypterygius australis, an Australian Cretaceous ichthyosaur. Lethaia 17, 99–113.Google Scholar
Wade, M. 1990. A review of the Australian Cretaceous longipinnate ichthyosaur Platypterygius, (Ichthyosauria, Ichthyopterygia). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 28, 115–37.Google Scholar
Zammit, M. 2010. A review of Australasian ichthyosaurs. Alcheringa 34, 281–92.Google Scholar
Zammit, M. 2012. Cretaceous ichthyosaurs: dwindling diversity or the empire strikes back? Geosciences 2, 11–24.Google Scholar
Zammit, M., Norris, R. & Kear, B. P. 2010. The Australian Cretaceous ichthyosaur Platypterygius australis: a description and review of postcranial remains. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30, 1726–35.Google Scholar