Polycotylidae (Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria) from the La Colonia Formation, Patagonia, Argentina: Phylogenetic affinities of Sulcusuchus erraini and the Late Cretaceous circum-pacific polycotylid diversity

O'gorman, Jose Patricio

doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2022.105339

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The phylogeny and taxonomy of Polycotylidae has been revised very recently by Clark et al [176], and I follow their taxonomic system despite the unstable topologies inside this clade discovered in previous studies [324,213,325,326]. The earliest polycotylids are known from Aptian of Australia [327].…”

Section: Polycotylidaementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other materials from early Cretaceous include Edgarosaurus muddi from North America (estimated at 3.2∼3.7 m by Drunkenmiller [222]), the "Richmond pliosaur" from Australia and some indeterminate fossils [310,328]. The key turning point of polycotylid evolution was the Cenomian-Turonian transition, which marked the extinction of some basal lineages (e.g., Occultonectia [326], contra [213]) and the rise of polycotylines. The body size disparity within Polycotylidae was also very high during this period, caused by the existence of species from different lineages which varied greatly in body mass: from the 400 kg Scalamagnus tropicensis [329], to 730 kg Palmula quadratus and 865 kg Eopolycotylus rankini [324], to large Trinacromerum bentonianum which weighed over 1.5 t [70].…”

Section: Polycotylidaementioning

confidence: 99%

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Body reconstruction and size estimation of plesiosaurs

Zhao

2024

Preprint

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Body size is the key to understanding many biological properties. Sizes of extinct animals are usually estimated from body reconstructions since their masses can not be weighed directly. Plesiosaurs were Mesozoic marine reptiles that were diverse in both body plan and size. Attempts to estimate body masses of plesiosaurs were rare in the past two centuries, possibly due to lack of knowledge about their postcranial anatomy and body shapes in life. The burst of plesiosaur studies in the past two decades has greatly expanded our cognition of their physiology, taxonomy, potential behavior and even soft body outlines. Here I present a comprehensive review of relevant knowledge, and propose a uniform set of methodology for rigorous body reconstruction of plesiosaurs. Twenty-two plesiosaur models were constructed under these criteria, and they were subsequently used as samples to find proxies for body mass. It is revealed that multiple skeletal elements are good indicators of plesiosaur size. This study offers scaling equations for size estimation, enabling quick acquisition of body mass information from fragmented fossils. A summary of body size evolution of different plesiosaur clades is also provided.

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