The origin of squamates revealed by a Middle Triassic lizard from the Italian Alps

Nature
Tiago R SimõesRandall L Nydam

Abstract

Modern squamates (lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians) are the world's most diverse group of tetrapods along with birds 1 and have a long evolutionary history, with the oldest known fossils dating from the Middle Jurassic period-168 million years ago2-4. The evolutionary origin of squamates is contentious because of several issues: (1) a fossil gap of approximately 70 million years exists between the oldest known fossils and their estimated origin5-7; (2) limited sampling of squamates in reptile phylogenies; and (3) conflicts between morphological and molecular hypotheses regarding the origin of crown squamates6,8,9. Here we shed light on these problems by using high-resolution microfocus X-ray computed tomography data from the articulated fossil reptile Megachirella wachtleri (Middle Triassic period, Italian Alps 10 ). We also present a phylogenetic dataset, combining fossils and extant taxa, and morphological and molecular data. We analysed this dataset under different optimality criteria to assess diapsid reptile relationships and the origins of squamates. Our results re-shape the diapsid phylogeny and present evidence that M. wachtleri is the oldest known stem squamate. Megachirella is 75 million years older than the previou...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 7, 2018·Scientific Data·Tiago R SimõesRandall L Nydam
Jul 3, 2019·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Akinobu WatanabeAnjali Goswami
Dec 29, 2019·Journal of Morphology·Rebecca J LaverJuan D Daza
Jan 14, 2020·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Lucas J Legendre, Donald Davesne
Mar 26, 2020·Systematic Biology·Nicolás Mongiardino Koch, Luke A Parry
May 1, 2020·Communications Biology·Jonathas Souza BittencourtMax Cardoso Langer
Jul 6, 2020·Nature Communications·Tiago R SimõesStephanie E Pierce
Jun 20, 2020·Nature·Lucas J LegendreJulia A Clarke
Apr 9, 2019·Biology Letters·Michelle R StockerWilliam G Parker
Aug 25, 2020·Science Advances·Jasmina WiemannDerek E G Briggs
Oct 27, 2020·Systematic Biology·Neil Brocklehurst, Yara Haridy
Jun 27, 2019·Molecular Aspects of Medicine·Michael J GaudryMartin Jastroch
Sep 17, 2020·Science Advances·Jasmina WiemannDerek E G Briggs
Apr 20, 2021·The Anatomical Record : Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology·Catherine R C StrongMichael W Caldwell
May 6, 2021·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Nicolás Mongiardino KochLuke A Parry
May 8, 2021·Royal Society Open Science·Jorge A Herrera-FloresMichael J Benton
Aug 26, 2021·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·David P FordRoger B J Benson
Aug 27, 2021·Nature·Ricardo N MartínezSebastián Apesteguía
Oct 16, 2021·Nature Communications·Fabien LafumaNicolas Di-Poï
Mar 11, 2020·Brain, Behavior and Evolution·Cristián Gutiérrez-IbáñezDouglas R Wylie
Dec 17, 2021·Experimental & Applied Acarology·Filipe Dantas-TorresFelipe Arley Costa Pessoa

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
X-ray

Software Mentioned

Burntrees script
BEAST
PAUP
DigiXCT ( DIGISENS
Mesquite
PartitionFinder2
TNT
Bayes
RogueNaRok
MAFFT

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