Soft tissue preservation in a fossil marine lizard with a bilobed tail fin
(2013) In Nature Communications 4.- Abstract
- Mosasaurs are secondarily aquatic squamates that became the dominant marine reptiles in the Late Cretaceous about 98-66 million years ago. Although early members of the group possessed body shapes similar to extant monitor lizards, derived forms have traditionally been portrayed as long, sleek animals with broadened, yet ultimately tapering tails. Here we report an extraordinary mosasaur fossil from the Maastrichtian of Harrana in central Jordan, which preserves soft tissues, including high fidelity outlines of a caudal fluke and flippers. This specimen provides the first indisputable evidence that derived mosasaurs were propelled by hypocercal tail fins, a hypothesis that was previously based on comparative skeletal anatomy alone.... (More)
- Mosasaurs are secondarily aquatic squamates that became the dominant marine reptiles in the Late Cretaceous about 98-66 million years ago. Although early members of the group possessed body shapes similar to extant monitor lizards, derived forms have traditionally been portrayed as long, sleek animals with broadened, yet ultimately tapering tails. Here we report an extraordinary mosasaur fossil from the Maastrichtian of Harrana in central Jordan, which preserves soft tissues, including high fidelity outlines of a caudal fluke and flippers. This specimen provides the first indisputable evidence that derived mosasaurs were propelled by hypocercal tail fins, a hypothesis that was previously based on comparative skeletal anatomy alone. Ecomorphological comparisons suggest that derived mosasaurs were similar to pelagic sharks in terms of swimming performance, a finding that significantly expands our understanding of the level of aquatic adaptation achieved by these seagoing lizards. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4170477
- author
- Lindgren, Johan LU ; Kaddumi, Hani F. and Polcyn, Michael J.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2013
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Nature Communications
- volume
- 4
- article number
- 2423
- publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000325533700020
- pmid:24022259
- scopus:84896699464
- pmid:24022259
- ISSN
- 2041-1723
- DOI
- 10.1038/ncomms3423
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 45fa6637-4b99-4150-b614-d2a5578114ad (old id 4170477)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 14:59:26
- date last changed
- 2022-03-06 22:09:24
@article{45fa6637-4b99-4150-b614-d2a5578114ad,
abstract = {{Mosasaurs are secondarily aquatic squamates that became the dominant marine reptiles in the Late Cretaceous about 98-66 million years ago. Although early members of the group possessed body shapes similar to extant monitor lizards, derived forms have traditionally been portrayed as long, sleek animals with broadened, yet ultimately tapering tails. Here we report an extraordinary mosasaur fossil from the Maastrichtian of Harrana in central Jordan, which preserves soft tissues, including high fidelity outlines of a caudal fluke and flippers. This specimen provides the first indisputable evidence that derived mosasaurs were propelled by hypocercal tail fins, a hypothesis that was previously based on comparative skeletal anatomy alone. Ecomorphological comparisons suggest that derived mosasaurs were similar to pelagic sharks in terms of swimming performance, a finding that significantly expands our understanding of the level of aquatic adaptation achieved by these seagoing lizards.}},
author = {{Lindgren, Johan and Kaddumi, Hani F. and Polcyn, Michael J.}},
issn = {{2041-1723}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
series = {{Nature Communications}},
title = {{Soft tissue preservation in a fossil marine lizard with a bilobed tail fin}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3423}},
doi = {{10.1038/ncomms3423}},
volume = {{4}},
year = {{2013}},
}