Stephen L. Brusatte

University of Edinburgh

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Mark T. Young

University of Edinburgh

Thomas E. Williamson

New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

Davide Foffa

Virginia Tech

Mark A. Norell

American Museum of Natural History

Sarah L. Shelley

University of Edinburgh

Carlos Roberto A. Candeiro

Universidade Federal de Goiás

Dugald A. Ross

Mackinnon Memorial Hospital

Thomas J. Challands

University of Edinburgh

Stig Walsh

National Museums Scotland

Richard J. Butler

University of Birmingham

Cooperative Institutions

American Museum of Natural History

University of Edinburgh

Natural History Museum

University of Bristol

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Universidade Federal de Goiás

Google (United States)

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology

Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

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Dinosaur Paleobiology

Stephen L. Brusatte

Paleobiology

10.1002/9781118274071

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Citations (57)

Late Cretaceous Bauru Group biota from Southern Goiás state, Brazil: history and fossil content

Earth Sciences Research Journal (2021)

Carlos Roberto A. Candeiro Stephen L. Brusatte G. A. B. Queiroz Adelino Carvalho Débora de Faria Maia

The southern Goiás state region of Central Brazil has an extensive and informative record of fossil biota. Particularly over the last five years, there has been a great increase in fossil finds, which has enabled a greater understanding of this region's fauna and flora during the Late Cretaceous. In this article, we provide an updated synthesis of the biota from the Cretaceous of the southern Goiás state, the record of plants, gastropods, turtles, crocodilians, titanosaurs, and theropod dinosaurs.

Biota

Fossil Record

Flora

10.15446/esrj.v24n4.82831

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Citations (7)

Re-description of two contemporaneous mesorostrine teleosauroids (Crocodylomorpha: Thalattosuchia) from the Bathonian of England and insights into the early evolution of Machimosaurini

Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (2019)

Michela M. Johnson Mark T. Young Stephen L. Brusatte

Abstract Teleosauroidea was a clade of successful, morphologically diverse, ancient crocodylomorphs that were integral in coastal marine/lagoonal environments during the Jurassic. Within Teleosauroidea, the macrophagous/durophagous tribe Machimosaurini evolved specialized feeding strategies (e.g. hypertrophied jaw musculature and blunt, heavily ornamented dentition) and large body sizes (> 7 m), becoming an important component of Middle and Late Jurassic ecosystems. These ocean-dwelling giants are well known from the Callovian (Lemmysuchus) of Europe and the UK, and from the Kimmeridgian–Tithonian (Machimosaurus) of Europe and northern Africa. There are reports of fragmentary machimosaurin material from the Bathonian of Africa, but the overall Bathonian teleosauroid material is poorly understood. While multiple specimens were described during the 19th and 20th centuries, little research has been done since. Here we re-describe two historically important Bathonian species from near Oxford, UK. We demonstrate that both ‘Steneosaurus’ larteti and ‘Steneosaurus’ boutilieri are valid taxa and we establish neotypes for both species and two new genera, Deslongchampsina and Yvridiosuchus. Our cladistic analysis finds Yvridiosuchus boutilieri as a basal member of Machimosaurini and Deslongchampsina lartetito be closely related to Steneosaurus heberti. Interestingly, four distinct teleosauroid ecomorphotypes are present in the Bathonian of Europe and teleosauroid ecomorphological diversity continued throughout the Callovian and Kimmeridgian/Tithonian in Europe and England.

Tribe

Tetrapod (structure)

10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz037

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Citations (36)

Supplementary Data for: Shifts in food webs and niche stability shaped survivorship and extinction at the end-Cretaceous

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (2022)

Jorge García‐Girón Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza Janne Alahuhta David G. DeMar Jani Heino

This compendium of files includes a list of statistical routines (Data S1) and cleaned fossil datasets from the Paleobiology Database (Data S2 to S3) for the Science Avances paper "Shifts in food webs and niche stability shaped survivorship and extinction at the end-Cretaceous". Data S1 and Data S2 can be opened in Microsoft Office and Data S3 can be imported in R using the load() command. Data S2 and S3 contain the same information (i.e., cleaned fossil datasets) but in different formats (xlsx vs. RData). Please, feel free to send an email to the maintainer Dr. Jorge García Girón (jogarg@unileon.es) if you face any trouble downloading, opening or using these files.

Extinction (optical mineralogy)

10.5281/zenodo.6475663

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The braincase and inner ear of ‘Metriorhynchus’ cf. ‘M.’ brachyrhynchus – implications for aquatic sensory adaptations in crocodylomorphs

Figshare (2021)

Julia A. Schwab Mark T. Young Yanina Herrera Lawrence M. Witmer Stig Walsh

During their long evolutionary history crocodylomorphs achieved a great diversity of body sizes, ecomorphotypes and inferred feeding ecologies. One unique group of crocodylomorphs are the thalattosuchians, which lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous (ca. 191–125 Ma). They transitioned from shallow marine species, like teleosauroids, into fully pelagic forms with paddle shaped limbs and a vertically orientated tail fluke, the metriorhynchids. The osteological adaptations that allowed metriorhynchids to live in the water are generally well understood, but less is known about their neurosensory and endocranial systems, such as the brain, inner ears, sinuses and cranial nerves and how they relate to their aquatic lifestyle. Based on micro-computed tomography (μCT) data and three-dimensional models, we here describe the braincase and endocranial anatomy of a fully marine metriorhynchid, ‘Metriorhynchus’ cf. ‘M.’ brachyrhynchus (NHMUK PV OR 32617). We found several neuroanatomical features that likely helped this species function in its marine environment. These include a unique flexure in the brain endocast not seen in other thalattosuchians. Other features that have previously been seen in thalattosuchians include enlarged cerebral hemispheres, a hypertrophied venous sinus system, enlarged internal carotid arteries and foramina, and closed/absent lateral pharyngotympanic foramina. The specimen also possesses a pelagic metriorhynchid bony labyrinth morphology, with a compact and dorsoventrally short shape, thick semicircular canals, an enlarged vestibule and potentially a short cochlear duct. A review of character distribution confirms that some of these features evolved at the base of Thalattosuchia in semiaquatic species, long before metriorhynchids became pelagic, suggesting that endocranial anatomy helped allow metriorhynchoids colonize the ocean realm.

10.6084/m9.figshare.14748134

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HIGH-RESOLUTION LATEST CRETACEOUS TO EARLY PALEOCENE MAGNETOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE SAN JUAN BASIN, NEW MEXICO, USA CONSTRAINS THE AGE OF DINOSAUR AND MAMMALIAN FAUNAS ACROSS THE K/PG BOUNDARY

Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America (2019)

Andrew G. Flynn Daniel J. Peppe Adam J. Davis Thomas E. Williamson Matthew T. Heizler

Magnetostratigraphy

10.1130/abs/2019am-340641

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First record of Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrates from Lithuania: phytosaurs (Diapsida: Archosauriformes) of probable Late Triassic age, with a review of phytosaur biogeography

Geological Magazine (2012)

Stephen L. Brusatte Richard J. Butler Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki Tomasz Sulej Robert Bronowicz

Abstract Fossils of Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrates from Lithuania and the wider East Baltic region of Europe have previously been unknown. We here report the first Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrate fossils from Lithuania: two premaxillary specimens and three teeth that belong to Phytosauria, a common clade of semiaquatic Triassic archosauriforms. These specimens represent an uncrested phytosaur, similar to several species within the genera Paleorhinus , Parasuchus , Rutiodon and Nicrosaurus . Because phytosaurs are currently only known from the Upper Triassic, their discovery in northwestern Lithuania (the Šaltiškiai clay-pit) suggests that at least part of the Triassic succession in this region is Late Triassic in age, and is not solely Early Triassic as has been previously considered. The new specimens are among the most northerly occurrences of phytosaurs in the Late Triassic, as Lithuania was approximately 7–10° further north than classic phytosaur-bearing localities in nearby Germany and Poland, and as much as 40° further north than the best-sampled phytosaur localities in North America. The far northerly occurrence of the Lithuanian fossils prompts a review of phytosaur biogeography and distribution, which suggests that these predators were widely distributed in the Triassic monsoonal belt but rarer in more arid regions.

Ladinian

10.1017/s0016756812000428

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Citations (35)

Vertebral Pneumaticity in the Ornithomimosaur Archaeornithomimus (Dinosauria: Theropoda) Revealed by Computed Tomography Imaging and Reappraisal of Axial Pneumaticity in Ornithomimosauria

PLoS ONE (2015)

Akinobu Watanabe Maria Eugenia Leone Gold Stephen L. Brusatte Roger Benson Jonah N. Choiniere

Among extant vertebrates, pneumatization of postcranial bones is unique to birds, with few known exceptions in other groups. Through reduction in bone mass, this feature is thought to benefit flight capacity in modern birds, but its prevalence in non-avian dinosaurs of variable sizes has generated competing hypotheses on the initial adaptive significance of postcranial pneumaticity. To better understand the evolutionary history of postcranial pneumaticity, studies have surveyed its distribution among non-avian dinosaurs. Nevertheless, the degree of pneumaticity in the basal coelurosaurian group Ornithomimosauria remains poorly known, despite their potential to greatly enhance our understanding of the early evolution of pneumatic bones along the lineage leading to birds. Historically, the identification of postcranial pneumaticity in non-avian dinosaurs has been based on examination of external morphology, and few studies thus far have focused on the internal architecture of pneumatic structures inside the bones. Here, we describe the vertebral pneumaticity of the ornithomimosaur Archaeornithomimus with the aid of X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging. Complementary examination of external and internal osteology reveals (1) highly pneumatized cervical vertebrae with an elaborate configuration of interconnected chambers within the neural arch and the centrum; (2) anterior dorsal vertebrae with pneumatic chambers inside the neural arch; (3) apneumatic sacral vertebrae; and (4) a subset of proximal caudal vertebrae with limited pneumatic invasion into the neural arch. Comparisons with other theropod dinosaurs suggest that ornithomimosaurs primitively exhibited a plesiomorphic theropod condition for axial pneumaticity that was extended among later taxa, such as Archaeornithomimus and large bodied Deinocheirus. This finding corroborates the notion that evolutionary increases in vertebral pneumaticity occurred in parallel among independent lineages of bird-line archosaurs. Beyond providing a comprehensive view of vertebral pneumaticity in a non-avian coelurosaur, this study demonstrates the utility and need of CT imaging for further clarifying the early evolutionary history of postcranial pneumaticity.

Postcrania

Theropoda

Osteology

10.1371/journal.pone.0145168

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Citations (20)

Baby tyrannosaurid bones and teeth from the Late Cretaceous of western North America¹

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (2021)

Gregory F. Funston Mark J. Powers S. Amber Whitebone Stephen L. Brusatte John B. Scannella

Tyrannosaurids were the apex predators of Late Cretaceous Laurasia and their status as dominant carnivores has garnered considerable interest since their discovery, both in the popular and scientific realms. As a result, they are well studied and much is known of their anatomy, diversity, growth, and evolution. In contrast, little is known of the earliest stages of tyrannosaurid development. Tyrannosaurid eggs and embryos remain elusive, and juvenile specimens — although known — are rare. Perinatal tyrannosaurid bones and teeth from the Campanian–Maastrichtian of western North America provide the first window into this critical period of the life of a tyrannosaurid. An embryonic dentary (cf. Daspletosaurus) from the Two Medicine Formation of Montana, measuring just 3 cm long, already exhibits distinctive tyrannosaurine characters like a “chin” and a deep Meckelian groove, and reveals the earliest stages of tooth development. When considered together with a remarkably large embryonic ungual from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, minimum hatchling size of tyrannosaurids can be roughly estimated. A perinatal premaxillary tooth from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation likely pertains to Albertosaurus sarcophagus and it shows small denticles on the carinae. This tooth shows that the hallmark characters that distinguish tyrannosaurids from other theropods were present early in life and raises questions about the ontogenetic variability of serrations in premaxillary teeth. Sedimentary and taphonomic similarities in the sites that produced the embryonic bones provide clues to the nesting habits of tyrannosaurids and may help to refine the prospecting search image in the continued quest to discover baby tyrannosaurids.

Laurasia

Tetrapod (structure)

10.1139/cjes-2020-0169

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Citations (13)

Processing Steps in Constructing Scaled Model of BP2_40. A sauropod-dominated tracksite from Rubha nam Brathairean (Brothers' Point), Isle of Skye, Scotland

Figshare (2018)

Paige E. dePolo Stephen L. Brusatte Thomas J. Challands Davide Foffa Dugald A. Ross

Processing Steps in Constructing Scaled Model of BP2_40

10.6084/m9.figshare.6061424

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