The evolution of Metriorhynchoidea (mesoeucrocodylia, thalattosuchia): an integrated approach using geometric morphometrics, analysis of disparity, and biomechanics

By M. Young, S. Brusatte, M. Ruta, Marco Brandalise de Andrade. 2010

247 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Metriorhynchoid crocodylians represent the pinnacle of marine specialization within Archosauria. Not only were they a major component of the Middle Jurassic–Early Cretaceous marine ecosystems, but they provide further examples that extinct crocodilians did not all resemble their modern extant relatives. Here, we use a varied toolkit of techniques, including phylogenetic reconstruction, geometric morphometrics, diversity counts, discrete character disparity analysis, and biomechanical finite-element analysis (FEA), to examine the macroevolutionary history of this clade. All analyses demonstrate that this clade became more divergent, in terms of biodiversity, form, and function, up until the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary, after which there is no evidence for recovery or further radiations. A clear evolutionary trend towards hypercarnivory in Dakosaurus is supported by phylogenetic character optimization, morphometrics, and FEA, which also support specialized piscivory within Rhacheosaurus and Cricosaurus. Within Metriorhynchoidea, there is a consistent trend towards increasing marine specialization, with the hypermarine Cricosaurus exhibiting numerous convergences with other Mesozoic marine reptiles (e.g. loss of the deltopectoral crest and retracted external nares). In addition, biomechanics, morphometrics, and characterdisparity analyses consistently distinguish the two newly erected metriorhynchid subfamilies. This study illustrates that together with phylogeny, quantitative assessment of diversity, form, and function help elucidate the macroevolutionary pattern of fossil clades.

Subfields: Nature and Landscape Conservation, Paleontology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/30e6d6d3245cbe2508dc5eebe3ac6419e5b7ef25

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In Nature and Landscape Conservation

In Paleontology

Citations in the corpus

The oldest known metriorhynchid super-predator: a new genus and species from the Middle Jurassic of England, with implications for serration and mandibular evolution in predacious clades (2013, background): “Lepage et al. (2008) referred it to Metriorhynchus brachyrhynchus (which Young et al. 2010 transferred to the genus Suchodus).”
The Evolution of Extreme Hypercarnivory in Metriorhynchidae (Mesoeucrocodylia: Thalattosuchia) Based on Evidence from Microscopic Denticle Morphology (2010, background): “Although metriorhynchids were some of the first fossil reptiles to be discovered, investigation of large-scale evolutionary patterns within the group began only recently (see Young et al, 2010 ; also Pierce et al.”
Analyzing Fluctuating Asymmetry with Geometric Morphometrics: Concepts, Methods, and Applications (2015, unknown): “half of a symmetric structure, which was a reasonable recommendation before methods to deal with object symmetry were available [34], is still sometimes used [231–234], but also has a number or disadvantages because it offers no principled way of removing potentially confounding asymmetry in”
Uncovering the diversification history of marine tetrapods: ecology influences the effect of geological sampling biases (2011, methodology): “These were compiled from recent taxonomic compendia or systematic assessments (e.g. Steel 1973; Hirayama 1997; Rieppel 2000; O’Keefe 2001; McGowan & Motani 2003; Bell & Polcyn 2005; Druckenmiller & Russell 2008; Hill et al. 2008; Jouve et al. 2008; Pierce et al 2009a, b; Young & Andrade 2009; Ketchu”
Estimating morphological diversity and tempo with discrete character‐taxon matrices: implementation, challenges, progress, and future directions (2016, background): “This is a common scenario with vertebrate data sets and likely explains their frequency amongst studies that use it (Wills et al., 1994; Brusatte et al., 2008a, b; Young et al., 2010; Prentice et al., 2011; Thorne et al., 2011; Ruta et al., 2013a, b; Hetherington et al., 2015).”