Evolutionary origin of the turtle skull

Nature
Gabe S BeverBhart-Anjan S Bhullar

Abstract

Transitional fossils informing the origin of turtles are among the most sought-after discoveries in palaeontology. Despite strong genomic evidence indicating that turtles evolved from within the diapsid radiation (which includes all other living reptiles), evidence of the inferred transformation between an ancestral turtle with an open, diapsid skull to the closed, anapsid condition of modern turtles remains elusive. Here we use high-resolution computed tomography and a novel character/taxon matrix to study the skull of Eunotosaurus africanus, a 260-million-year-old fossil reptile from the Karoo Basin of South Africa, whose distinctive postcranial skeleton shares many unique features with the shelled body plan of turtles. Scepticism regarding the status of Eunotosaurus as the earliest stem turtle arises from the possibility that these shell-related features are the products of evolutionary convergence. Our phylogenetic analyses indicate strong cranial support for Eunotosaurus as a critical transitional form in turtle evolution, thus fortifying a 40-million-year extension to the turtle stem and moving the ecological context of its origin back onto land. Furthermore, we find unexpected evidence that Eunotosaurus is a diapsid rept...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 26, 2015·Molecular Biology and Evolution·Karin Brigit HolthausLeopold Eckhart
Apr 3, 2016·Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·Markus Lambertz
Mar 5, 2016·Zoology : Analysis of Complex Systems, ZACS·Rainer R Schoch, Hans-Dieter Sues
May 11, 2016·Zoology : Analysis of Complex Systems, ZACS·G S BeverBhart-Anjan S Bhullar
Apr 14, 2016·Systematic Biology·Lucas J LegendreJorge Cubo
Jul 19, 2016·Current Biology : CB·Tyler R LysonG S Bever
Jun 2, 2017·Current Opinion in Genetics & Development·Jacqueline E Moustakas-VerhoScott F Gilbert
Mar 25, 2018·Nature Communications·Adam C PritchardBhart-Anjan S Bhullar
Nov 7, 2018·Scientific Data·Tiago R SimõesRandall L Nydam
Jan 22, 2019·Nature Ecology & Evolution·Jason D PardoAdam K Huttenlocker
Mar 21, 2019·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Mark J MacDougallJörg Fröbisch
Jan 14, 2020·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Mathieu G Faure-Brac, Jorge Cubo
May 10, 2017·Royal Society Open Science·Tomasz Szczygielski
Jan 5, 2020·Nature Ecology & Evolution·David P Ford, Roger B J Benson
Jun 4, 2020·Developmental Dynamics : an Official Publication of the American Association of Anatomists·Daniel Smith ParedesBhart-Anjan S Bhullar
Aug 24, 2018·Nature·Chun LiXiao-Chun Wu
Mar 22, 2020·Scientific Reports·María Victoria Fernandez BlancoPaula Bona
Dec 3, 2016·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Christian Foth, Walter G Joyce
Dec 9, 2020·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Christopher T GriffinSterling J Nesbitt
Jun 1, 2021·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Pascal Abel, Ingmar Werneburg

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