Tags

Type your tag names separated by a space and hit enter

First complete sauropod dinosaur skull from the Cretaceous of the Americas and the evolution of sauropod dentition.
Naturwissenschaften. 2010 Apr; 97(4):379-91.N

Abstract

Sauropod dinosaur bones are common in Mesozoic terrestrial sediments, but sauropod skulls are exceedingly rare--cranial materials are known for less than one third of sauropod genera and even fewer are known from complete skulls. Here we describe the first complete sauropod skull from the Cretaceous of the Americas, Abydosaurus mcintoshi, n. gen., n. sp., known from 104.46 +/- 0.95 Ma (megannum) sediments from Dinosaur National Monument, USA. Abydosaurus shares close ancestry with Brachiosaurus, which appeared in the fossil record ca. 45 million years earlier and had substantially broader teeth. A survey of tooth shape in sauropodomorphs demonstrates that sauropods evolved broad crowns during the Early Jurassic but did not evolve narrow crowns until the Late Jurassic, when they occupied their greatest range of crown breadths. During the Cretaceous, brachiosaurids and other lineages independently underwent a marked diminution in tooth breadth, and before the latest Cretaceous broad-crowned sauropods were extinct on all continental landmasses. Differential survival and diversification of narrow-crowned sauropods in the Late Cretaceous appears to be a directed trend that was not correlated with changes in plant diversity or abundance, but may signal a shift towards elevated tooth replacement rates and high-wear dentition. Sauropods lacked many of the complex herbivorous adaptations present within contemporaneous ornithischian herbivores, such as beaks, cheeks, kinesis, and heterodonty. The spartan design of sauropod skulls may be related to their remarkably small size--sauropod skulls account for only 1/200th of total body volume compared to 1/30th body volume in ornithopod dinosaurs.

Links

PMC Free PDF
PMC Free Full Text

Authors+Show Affiliations

Chure D
Dinosaur National Monument, P.O. Box 128, Jensen, UT 84035, USA.
Britt BB
No affiliation info available
Whitlock JA
No affiliation info available
Wilson JA
No affiliation info available

MeSH

AnimalsBone and BonesDentitionDinosaursGeographyNorth AmericaPaleontologyPhylogenySkullTooth

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Language

eng

PubMed ID

20179896

Citation

Chure, Daniel, et al. "First Complete Sauropod Dinosaur Skull From the Cretaceous of the Americas and the Evolution of Sauropod Dentition." Die Naturwissenschaften, vol. 97, no. 4, 2010, pp. 379-91.
Chure D, Britt BB, Whitlock JA, et al. First complete sauropod dinosaur skull from the Cretaceous of the Americas and the evolution of sauropod dentition. Naturwissenschaften. 2010;97(4):379-91.
Chure, D., Britt, B. B., Whitlock, J. A., & Wilson, J. A. (2010). First complete sauropod dinosaur skull from the Cretaceous of the Americas and the evolution of sauropod dentition. Die Naturwissenschaften, 97(4), 379-91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-010-0650-6
Chure D, et al. First Complete Sauropod Dinosaur Skull From the Cretaceous of the Americas and the Evolution of Sauropod Dentition. Naturwissenschaften. 2010;97(4):379-91. PubMed PMID: 20179896.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - First complete sauropod dinosaur skull from the Cretaceous of the Americas and the evolution of sauropod dentition. AU - Chure,Daniel, AU - Britt,Brooks B, AU - Whitlock,John A, AU - Wilson,Jeffrey A, Y1 - 2010/02/24/ PY - 2009/10/21/received PY - 2010/01/16/accepted PY - 2010/01/15/revised PY - 2010/2/25/entrez PY - 2010/2/25/pubmed PY - 2010/7/8/medline SP - 379 EP - 91 JF - Die Naturwissenschaften JO - Naturwissenschaften VL - 97 IS - 4 N2 - Sauropod dinosaur bones are common in Mesozoic terrestrial sediments, but sauropod skulls are exceedingly rare--cranial materials are known for less than one third of sauropod genera and even fewer are known from complete skulls. Here we describe the first complete sauropod skull from the Cretaceous of the Americas, Abydosaurus mcintoshi, n. gen., n. sp., known from 104.46 +/- 0.95 Ma (megannum) sediments from Dinosaur National Monument, USA. Abydosaurus shares close ancestry with Brachiosaurus, which appeared in the fossil record ca. 45 million years earlier and had substantially broader teeth. A survey of tooth shape in sauropodomorphs demonstrates that sauropods evolved broad crowns during the Early Jurassic but did not evolve narrow crowns until the Late Jurassic, when they occupied their greatest range of crown breadths. During the Cretaceous, brachiosaurids and other lineages independently underwent a marked diminution in tooth breadth, and before the latest Cretaceous broad-crowned sauropods were extinct on all continental landmasses. Differential survival and diversification of narrow-crowned sauropods in the Late Cretaceous appears to be a directed trend that was not correlated with changes in plant diversity or abundance, but may signal a shift towards elevated tooth replacement rates and high-wear dentition. Sauropods lacked many of the complex herbivorous adaptations present within contemporaneous ornithischian herbivores, such as beaks, cheeks, kinesis, and heterodonty. The spartan design of sauropod skulls may be related to their remarkably small size--sauropod skulls account for only 1/200th of total body volume compared to 1/30th body volume in ornithopod dinosaurs. SN - 1432-1904 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/20179896/First_complete_sauropod_dinosaur_skull_from_the_Cretaceous_of_the_Americas_and_the_evolution_of_sauropod_dentition_ L2 - https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-010-0650-6 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -