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Oldest southern sauropterygian reveals early marine reptile globalization.
- Source :
-
Current Biology . Jun2024, Vol. 34 Issue 12, pR562-R563. 2p. - Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- Sauropterygians were the stratigraphically longest-ranging clade of Mesozoic marine reptiles with a global fossil record spanning ∼180 million years 1. 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-ocean 1 after the late-Early Triassic (late Olenekian, ∼248.8 million years [Ma] ago 2), and via possible trans-Arctic migration 1 to the Eastern Panthalassa super-ocean prior to the earliest Middle Triassic (Olenekian–earliest Anisian 3,4 , ∼247 Ma). Here, we describe the geologically oldest sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere — a nothosaur (basal sauropterygian 5) from the Middle Triassic (Anisian, after ∼246 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 extinction 8 and suggests that rapid globalization accompanied their initial radiation in the earliest Mesozoic. Benjamin Kear and colleagues describe the geologically oldest sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere. This fossil evidences the trans-oceanic dispersal and rapid global radiation of sauropterygians after the end-Permian mass extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 09609822
- Volume :
- 34
- Issue :
- 12
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Current Biology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 177844713
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.035