Phylogeny, Histology and Inferred Body Size Evolution in a New Rhabdodontid Dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Hungary
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Type = Article
Cím:
Phylogeny, Histology and Inferred Body Size Evolution in a New Rhabdodontid Dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Hungary
Létrehozó:
Ősi, Attila
Prondvai, Edina
Butler, Richard
Weishampel, D. B.
Dátum:
2012
Téma:
QE05 Historical geology. Stratigraphy / Földtörténet, rétegtan
QH526 Paleontology / őslénytan
QL01 Systematic zoology / állatrendszertan
Tartalmi leírás:
Background: Rhabdodontid ornithopod dinosaurs are characteristic elements of Late Cretaceous European vertebrate
faunas and were previously collected from lower Campanian to Maastrichtian continental deposits. Phylogenetic analyses
have placed rhabdodontids among basal ornithopods as the sister taxon to the clade consisting of Tenontosaurus,
Dryosaurus, Camptosaurus, and Iguanodon. Recent studies considered Zalmoxes, the best known representative of the clade,
to be significantly smaller than closely related ornithopods such as Tenontosaurus, Camptosaurus, or Rhabdodon, and
concluded that it was probably an island dwarf that inhabited the Maastrichtian Hat¸eg Island.
Methodology/Principal Findings: Rhabdodontid remains from the Santonian of western Hungary provide evidence for a
new, small-bodied form, which we assign to Mochlodon vorosi n. sp. The new species is most similar to the early Campanian
M. suessi from Austria, and the close affinities of the two species is further supported by the results of a global phylogenetic
analysis of ornithischian dinosaurs. Bone histological studies of representatives of all rhabdodontids indicate a similar adult
body length of 1.6?1.8 m in the Hungarian and Austrian species, 2.4?2.5 m in the subadults of both Zalmoxes robustus and
Z. shqiperorum and a much larger, 5?6 m adult body length in Rhabdodon. Phylogenetic mapping of femoral lengths onto
the results of the phylogenetic analysis suggests a femoral length of around 340 mm as the ancestral state for
Rhabdodontidae, close to the adult femoral lengths known for Zalmoxes (320?333 mm).
Conclusions/Significance: Our analysis of body size evolution does not support the hypothesis of autapomorhic nanism for
Zalmoxes. However, Rhabdodon is reconstructed as having undergone autapomorphic giantism and the reconstructed small
femoral length (245 mm) of Mochlodon is consistent with a reduction in size relative to the ancestral rhabdodontid
condition. Our results imply a pre-Santonian divergence between western and eastern rhabdodontid lineages within the
western Tethyan archipelago.
Típus:
Article
PeerReviewed
Formátum:
text
Azonosító:
Ősi, Attila and Prondvai, Edina and Butler, Richard and Weishampel, D. B. (2012) Phylogeny, Histology and Inferred Body Size Evolution in a New Rhabdodontid Dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Hungary. PLoS ONE, 7 (9). pp. 1-25. ISSN 1932-6203
Kapcsolat:
https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044318