Abstract:Recent collection efforts in the upper Campanian (∼76-73.5 Ma) Fruitland and Kirtland formations of northwestern New Mexico have significantly increased the taxonomic diversity of lizards in this historically poorly understood squamate assemblage. New lizard specimens from the “Hunter Wash Local Fauna ” of the upper Fruitland and lower Kirtland formations include: (1) new specimens referable to Chamopsiidae; (2) new material belonging to Scincomorpha, (3) new material belonging to Anguidae; and (4) the first re… Show more
“…Indeed, we advocate for more taxonomic work in Late Cretaceous floras, coupled with ecological data for each plant host. This would particularly be useful for elucidating the forces driving patterns of Late Campanian regionalism and disparities in taxonomic richness observed in vertebrates [174][175][176][177] and invertebrates [178]. Latitudinally dispersed floras and associated indicators of insect richness from penecontemporaneous geologic units in the Western Interior are key to understanding how abiotic factors, such as sea level, climate, and tectonics influenced Late Cretaceous ecosystems.…”
Section: Late Cretaceous Insect Herbivorymentioning
The Upper Cretaceous (Campanian Stage) Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah, USA, preserves abundant plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate fossil taxa. Taken together, these fossils indicate that the ecosystems preserved in the Kaiparowits Formation were characterized by high biodiversity. Hundreds of vertebrate and invertebrate species and over 80 plant morphotypes are recognized from the formation, but insects and their associations with plants are largely undocumented. Here, we describe a new fossil leaf taxon, Catula gettyi gen et. sp. nov. in the family Lauraceae from the Kaiparowits Formation. Catula gettyi occurs at numerous localities in this deposit that represent ponded and distal floodplain environments. The type locality for C. gettyi has yielded 1,564 fossil leaf specimens of this species, which provides the opportunity to circumscribe this new plant species. By erecting this new genus and species, we are able to describe ecological associations on C. gettyi and place these interactions within a taxonomic context. We describe an extensive archive of feeding damage on C. gettyi caused by herbivorous insects, including more than 800 occurrences of insect damage belonging to five functional feeding groups indicating that insect-mediated damage on this taxon is both rich and abundant. Catula gettyi is one of the best-sampled host plant taxa from the Mesozoic Era, a poorly sampled time interval, and its insect damage is comparable to other Lauraceae taxa from the younger Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Flora of North Dakota, USA.
“…Indeed, we advocate for more taxonomic work in Late Cretaceous floras, coupled with ecological data for each plant host. This would particularly be useful for elucidating the forces driving patterns of Late Campanian regionalism and disparities in taxonomic richness observed in vertebrates [174][175][176][177] and invertebrates [178]. Latitudinally dispersed floras and associated indicators of insect richness from penecontemporaneous geologic units in the Western Interior are key to understanding how abiotic factors, such as sea level, climate, and tectonics influenced Late Cretaceous ecosystems.…”
Section: Late Cretaceous Insect Herbivorymentioning
The Upper Cretaceous (Campanian Stage) Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah, USA, preserves abundant plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate fossil taxa. Taken together, these fossils indicate that the ecosystems preserved in the Kaiparowits Formation were characterized by high biodiversity. Hundreds of vertebrate and invertebrate species and over 80 plant morphotypes are recognized from the formation, but insects and their associations with plants are largely undocumented. Here, we describe a new fossil leaf taxon, Catula gettyi gen et. sp. nov. in the family Lauraceae from the Kaiparowits Formation. Catula gettyi occurs at numerous localities in this deposit that represent ponded and distal floodplain environments. The type locality for C. gettyi has yielded 1,564 fossil leaf specimens of this species, which provides the opportunity to circumscribe this new plant species. By erecting this new genus and species, we are able to describe ecological associations on C. gettyi and place these interactions within a taxonomic context. We describe an extensive archive of feeding damage on C. gettyi caused by herbivorous insects, including more than 800 occurrences of insect damage belonging to five functional feeding groups indicating that insect-mediated damage on this taxon is both rich and abundant. Catula gettyi is one of the best-sampled host plant taxa from the Mesozoic Era, a poorly sampled time interval, and its insect damage is comparable to other Lauraceae taxa from the younger Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Flora of North Dakota, USA.
“…The unique ceratopsian horn may support the hypothesis that some clades exhibit basin-scale endemism, as suggested by previous work on ceratopsians (e.g., . Ultimately, it is likely each clade exhibits its own unique biogeographic pattern, as evidenced by previous work on Late Cretaceous squamates (Nydam et al, 2013;Woolley et al, 2020). Continued exploration of the Neslen Formation will help elucidate these patterns by providing a critical data source between better-studies formations in southern Utah and Montana.…”
Section: Acquiring the Homestead Upper Triassic Site: An Internationa...mentioning
“…Figure 1.Schematic diagram of an example squamate skeleton (modeled after Uta stansburiana ), with colorized anatomical regions used in this study for sampling of fossil squamate collections, and example fossil squamate elements. A, Jaws + palatal elements (example: DMNH EPV.119554 Scincomorpha partial left dentary; from Woolley et al 2020). B, Posterior cranial elements (example: YPM [unnumbered], partial frontal).…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…B, Posterior cranial elements (example: YPM [unnumbered], partial frontal). C, Dermal elements (osteoderms) (example: DMNH EPV.119455, Anguidae osteoderm; from Woolley et al 2020). D, Axial elements (example: UU MAA 7173, Ophisaurus partial trunk vertebra; from Georgalis et al 2019).…”
The fossil record is notoriously imperfect and biased in representation, hindering our ability to place fossil specimens into an evolutionary context. For groups with fossil records mostly consisting of disarticulated parts (e.g., vertebrates, echinoderms, plants), the limited morphological information preserved sparks concerns about whether fossils retain reliable evidence of phylogenetic relationships and lends uncertainty to analyses of diversification, paleobiogeography, and biostratigraphy in Earth's history. To address whether a fragmentary past can be trusted, we need to assess whether incompleteness affects the quality of phylogenetic information contained in fossil data. Herein, we characterize skeletal incompleteness bias in a large dataset (6585 specimens; 14,417 skeletal elements) of fossil squamates (lizards, snakes, amphisbaenians, and mosasaurs). We show that jaws + palatal bones, vertebrae, and ribs appear more frequently in the fossil record than other parts of the skeleton. This incomplete anatomical representation in the fossil record is biased against regions of the skeleton that contain the majority of morphological phylogenetic characters used to assess squamate evolutionary relationships. Despite this bias, parsimony- and model-based comparative analyses indicate that the most frequently occurring parts of the skeleton in the fossil record retain similar levels of phylogenetic signal as parts of the skeleton that are rarer. These results demonstrate that the biased squamate fossil record contains reliable phylogenetic information and support our ability to place incomplete fossils in the tree of life.
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