TY - JOUR T1 - Novel insight into the origin of the growth dynamics of sauropod dinosaurs. AU - Cerda,Ignacio Alejandro, AU - Chinsamy,Anusuya, AU - Pol,Diego, AU - Apaldetti,Cecilia, AU - Otero,Alejandro, AU - Powell,Jaime Eduardo, AU - Martínez,Ricardo Nestor, Y1 - 2017/06/27/ PY - 2016/08/21/received PY - 2017/06/02/accepted PY - 2017/6/28/entrez PY - 2017/6/28/pubmed PY - 2017/9/21/medline SP - e0179707 EP - e0179707 JF - PloS one JO - PLoS One VL - 12 IS - 6 N2 - Sauropod dinosaurs include the largest terrestrial animals and are considered to have uninterrupted rapid rates of growth, which differs from their more basal relatives, which have a slower cyclical growth. Here we examine the bone microstructure of several sauropodomorph dinosaurs, including basal taxa, as well as the more derived sauropods. Although our results agree that the plesiomorphic condition for Sauropodomorpha is cyclical growth dynamics, we found that the hypothesized dichotomy between the growth patterns of basal and more derived sauropodomorphs is not supported. Here, we show that sauropod-like growth dynamics of uninterrupted rapid growth also occurred in some basal sauropodomorphs, and that some basal sauropods retained the plesiomorphic cyclical growth patterns. Among the sauropodomorpha it appears that the basal taxa exploited different growth strategies, but the more derived Eusauropoda successfully utilized rapid, uninterrupted growth strategies. SN - 1932-6203 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/28654696/Novel_insight_into_the_origin_of_the_growth_dynamics_of_sauropod_dinosaurs_ L2 - https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179707 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -