Species in the genus Ameles Burmeister and Pseudoyersinia Kirby (Amelini) are traditionally defined as small-sized, ground-dwelling mantids whose males are distinct for being, respectively, macropterous and brachypterous. However, comparative morphological studies across Amelini confirmed the existence of short-winged males in Ameles, suggesting that this traditional diagnostic concept does not apply to all species. Our analyses of several species from West Mediterranean localities (Canary Islands, Spain, Italy, and Morocco) resulted in the relocation of Pseudoyersinia andreae Galvagni, 1976 to Ameles asAmeles andreae (Galvagni, 1976) (n. comb.) with Ameles insularis Agabiti, Ippolito & Lombardo, 2010 as its new synonym (n. syn.), the clarification of the taxonomic identity of A. gracilis (Brullé, 1838) and A. maroccana Uvarov, 1931, including diagnoses of their males, and the description of Ameles spallanzania obscura (n. ssp.) (from Spain). We also take the opportunity to describe Pseudoyersinia maroccana (n. sp.) (from Morocco) based on museum specimens separating it from Ameles maroccana Uvarov, 1931. We also found that wing length is positively correlated to ocelli size. We discuss this trend from an ecological, evolutionary, and biogeographic perspectives to both facilitate species circumscription and justify the taxonomic modifications herein introduced.
Roberto Battiston, José Correas, Francesca Lombardo, Mohamed Mouna, Keith Payne and Kai Schütte. 2018. Morphological Convergences in Ameles Burmeister and Pseudoyersinia Kirby: Taxonomic Implications of Wing Reduction and Flight Predisposition in some West-Mediterranean Amelini (Insecta: Mantodea). Zootaxa. 4377(1); 21–38. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4377.1.2
كيف تحصل على مدونة جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات من هنا
شاهد قناة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على اليوتيوب لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
رابط مدونة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات في أي وقت حــــتى لو تم حذفها من هنا شاهد صفحة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على الفيس بوك لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
تعرف على ترتيب مواضيع منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات (حتى لا تختلط عليك الامور) من هنا
ملاحظة هامة: كل عمليات تنزيل، رفع، وتعديل المواضيع الجاهزة تتم بطريقة آلية، ونعتذر عن اي موضوع مخالف او مخل بالحياء مرفوع بالمدونات الجاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات، ولكم ان تقوموا بحذف هذه المواضيع والمشاركات والطريقة بسيطة وسهلة. ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــسلامـ.
The late Palaeozoic is a pivotal period for the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems. Generalised warming and aridification trends resulted in profound floral and faunal turnover as well as increased levels of endemism. The patchiness of well-preserved, late Permian terrestrial ecosystems, however, complicates attempts to reconstruct a coherent, global scenario. In this paper, we provide a new reconstruction of the Bletterbach Biota (Southern Alps, NE Italy), which constitutes a unique, low-latitude record of Lopingian life on land. We also integrate floral, faunal (from skeletal and footprint studies), and plant–insect interaction data, as well as global climatic interpretations, to compare the composition of the 14 best-known late Permian ecosystems. The results of this ecosystem-scale analysis provide evidence for a strong correlation between the distribution of the principal clades of tetrapod herbivores (dicynodonts, pareiasaurs, captorhinids), phytoprovinces and climatic latitudinal zonation. We show that terrestrial ecosystems were structured and provincialised at high taxonomic levels by climate regions, and that latitudinal distribution is a key predictor of ecosystem compositional affinity. A latitudinal diversity gradient characterised by decreasing richness towards higher latitudes is apparent: mid- to low-latitude ecosystems had the greatest amount of high-level taxonomic diversity, whereas those from high latitudes were dominated by small numbers of higher taxa. The high diversities of tropical ecosystems stem from their inclusion of a mixture of late-occurring holdovers from the early Permian, early members of clades that come to prominence in the Triassic, and contemporary taxa that are also represented in higher latitude assemblages. A variety of evidence suggests that the Permian tropics acted as both a cradle (an area with high origination rates) and museum (an area with low extinction rates) for biodiversity.
The lush equatorial ecosystem of the late Permian, about 260 milion years ago, as reconstructed in the Dolomites region, Northern Italy.
Drawing by Davide Bonadonna.
Massimo Bernardi, Fabio Massimo Petti, Evelyn Kustatscher, Matthias Franz, Christoph Hartkopf-Fröder, Conrad C. Labandeira, Torsten Wappler, Johanna H.A. van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, Brandon R. Peecook and Kenneth D. Angielczyk. 2017. Late Permian (Lopingian) Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Global Comparison with New Data from the Low-Latitude Bletterbach Biota. Earth-Science Reviews. 175; 18-43. DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.10.002
How much can late Permian ecosystems tell us about modern Earth? A lot. phy.so/432563163 @physorg_com
كيف تحصل على مدونة جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات من هنا
شاهد قناة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على اليوتيوب لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
رابط مدونة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات في أي وقت حــــتى لو تم حذفها من هنا شاهد صفحة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على الفيس بوك لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
تعرف على ترتيب مواضيع منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات (حتى لا تختلط عليك الامور) من هنا
ملاحظة هامة: كل عمليات تنزيل، رفع، وتعديل المواضيع الجاهزة تتم بطريقة آلية، ونعتذر عن اي موضوع مخالف او مخل بالحياء مرفوع بالمدونات الجاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات، ولكم ان تقوموا بحذف هذه المواضيع والمشاركات والطريقة بسيطة وسهلة. ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــسلامـ.
Combining genetic, morphological and geographical data, we re-evaluate Sciurus meridionalis, Lucifero 1907 as a tree squirrel species. The species, previously considered a subspecies of the Eurasian red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris, is endemic to South Italy with a disjunct distribution with respect to S. vulgaris. The new species has a typical, monomorphic coat colour characterized by a white ventral fur and a very dark-brown to blackish fur on the back, sides and tail. Specimens of S. meridionalis have a larger hind foot length and weigh about 35% more than live-caught S. vulgaris from northern Italy. S. meridionalis is larger than S. vulgaris specimens from three other regions in Italy for mandible length, skull width and skull (condylobasal) length, and principal component scores indicate significant shape differences of specimens from the Calabria population (S. meridionalis) compared to all other specimens (S. vulgaris). These morphological differences are further supported by genetic evidence at three mitochondrial markers (D-loop, cytochrome b and the DNA barcoding region COI) using the widest molecular dataset ever assembled for Sciurus vulgaris and S. meridionalis. All the investigated markers revealed exclusive haplotypes for S. meridionalis well separated from those of S. vulgaris and previously published results based on nuclear markers further support our taxonomic hypothesis. We suggest Calabrian black squirrel as common name for this new taxon.
Keywords: Sciuridae; Sciurus meridionalis; taxonomy; new species; Italy
Figure 2 – Sciurus meridionalis, in summer coat, from Sila massif, Calabria, Italy.
Photograph by Antonio Mancuso.
Family Sciuridae Fischer von Waldheim, 1817
Genus Sciurus Linnaeus, 1758
Sciurus meridionalis, Lucifero 1907
Geographical distribution: The range of Sciurus meridionalis Lucifero, 1907 includes the three main mountain blocks of Calabria: the whole Pollino massif (including Lucanian side) at the border between Calabria and Lucania, the Sila massif and the Aspromonte massif, with three once disjunct populations.Only recently the Pollino and Sila populations have become connec-ted by colonization of the Catena Costiera, which was made possible by replanting of conifers (Rima et al., 2009). The species has not been reported from the Serre Massif (Fig. 3).
Lucas A. Wauters, Giovanni Amori, Gaetano Aloise, Spartaco Gippoliti, Paolo Agnelli, Andrea Galimberti, Maurizio Casiraghi, Damiano Preatoni and Adriano Martinoli. 2017. New Endemic Mammal Species for Europe: Sciurus meridionalis (Rodentia, Sciuridae). Hystrix[the Italian Journal of Mammalogy]. DOI: 10.4404/hystrix-28.1-12015
كيف تحصل على مدونة جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات من هنا
شاهد قناة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على اليوتيوب لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
رابط مدونة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات في أي وقت حــــتى لو تم حذفها من هنا شاهد صفحة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على الفيس بوك لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
تعرف على ترتيب مواضيع منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات (حتى لا تختلط عليك الامور) من هنا
ملاحظة هامة: كل عمليات تنزيل، رفع، وتعديل المواضيع الجاهزة تتم بطريقة آلية، ونعتذر عن اي موضوع مخالف او مخل بالحياء مرفوع بالمدونات الجاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات، ولكم ان تقوموا بحذف هذه المواضيع والمشاركات والطريقة بسيطة وسهلة. ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــسلامـ.
The species of Pritha Lehtinen, 1967 in Italy are revised for the first time, and a preliminary putative diagnosis for the genus is provided. Two new Italian species are described: Pritha parva sp. nov. (male and female) andP. sagittata sp. nov. (male and female). P. pallida (Kulczyński, 1897) and the type species P. nana (Simon, 1868) are entirely re-described. The copulatory organs, some other somatic characters and the habitus of each sex of the four Italian species are illustrated and photographed at high magnifications. P. debilis (Simon, 1911) and P. vestita (Simon, 1873) are removed from the synonymy with P. nana and revalidated to species status, and a lectotype is designated for the latter. P. pallida is recorded from Spain and Greece for the first time. Distribution, behavioural aspects and ecology of the four Italian species are discussed and photographs of live specimens, webs and habitats are provided.
FIGURE 12. Pritha sagittata sp. nov. Habitus of live male
Carlo Maria Legittimo, Enrico Simeon, Piergiorgio di Pompeo and Alessandro Kulczycki. 2017. The Italian Species of Pritha (Araneae, Filistatidae): A Critical Revision and Description of Two New. Zootaxa. 4243(2); 201-248. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4243.2.1
كيف تحصل على مدونة جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات من هنا
شاهد قناة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على اليوتيوب لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
رابط مدونة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات في أي وقت حــــتى لو تم حذفها من هنا شاهد صفحة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على الفيس بوك لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
تعرف على ترتيب مواضيع منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات (حتى لا تختلط عليك الامور) من هنا
ملاحظة هامة: كل عمليات تنزيل، رفع، وتعديل المواضيع الجاهزة تتم بطريقة آلية، ونعتذر عن اي موضوع مخالف او مخل بالحياء مرفوع بالمدونات الجاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات، ولكم ان تقوموا بحذف هذه المواضيع والمشاركات والطريقة بسيطة وسهلة. ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــسلامـ.
The homology of the tridactyl hand of birds is a still debated subject, with both paleontological and developmental evidence used in support of alternative identity patterns in the avian fingers. With its simplified phalangeal morphology, the Late Jurassic ceratosaurian Limusaurus has been argued to support a II–III–IV digital identity in birds and a complex pattern of homeotic transformations in three-fingered (tetanuran) theropods. We report a new large-bodied theropod,Saltriovenator zanellai gen. et sp. nov., based on a partial skeleton from the marine Saltrio Formation (Sinemurian, lowermost Jurassic) of Lombardy (Northern Italy). Taphonomical analyses show bone bioerosion by marine invertebrates (first record for dinosaurian remains) and suggest a complex history for the carcass before being deposited on a well-oxygenated and well-illuminated sea bottom. Saltriovenator shows a mosaic of features seen in four-fingered theropods and in basal tetanurans. Phylogenetic analysis supports sister taxon relationships between the new Italian theropod and the younger Early Jurassic Berberosaurus from Morocco, in a lineage which is the basalmost of Ceratosauria. Compared to the atrophied hand of later members of Ceratosauria, Saltriovenator demonstrates that a fully functional hand, well-adapted for struggling and grasping, was primitively present in ceratosaurians. Ancestral state reconstruction along the avian stem supports 2-3-4-1-X and 2-3-4-0-X as the manual phalangeal formulae at the roots of Ceratosauria and Tetanurae, confirming the I–II–III pattern in the homology of the avian fingers. Accordingly, the peculiar hand of Limusaurus represents a derived condition restricted to late-diverging ceratosaurians and cannot help in elucidating the origin of the three-fingered condition of tetanurans. The evolution of the tridactyl hand of birds is explained by step-wise lateral simplification among non-tetanuran theropod dinosaurs, followed by a single primary axis shift from digit position 4 to 3 at the root of Tetanurae once the fourth finger was completely lost, which allowed independent losses of the vestigial fourth metacarpal among allosaurians, tyrannosauroids, and maniraptoromorphs. With an estimated body length of 7.5 m, Saltriovenator is the largest and most robust theropod from the Early Jurassic, pre-dating the occurrence in theropods of a body mass approaching 1,000 Kg by over 25 My. The radiation of larger and relatively stockier averostran theropods earlier than previously known may represent one of the factors that ignited the trend toward gigantism in Early Jurassic sauropods.
Figure 1: Fossil location and geological setting. (A–C) Outline maps of Italy, Lombardy, Varese Province, and Saltrio Municipality; (D) satellite view of the Saltrio area, with map marker indicating the Saltrio quarry; (E) map marker indicating the stratigraphic log in the Saltrio quarry; (F) the ammonite Paracoroniceras cf. gmuendense and (G) the nautiloid Cenoceras striatum, both found associated in the layer containing the dinosaur bones; (H) glauconite present as accessory mineral in block C (counterpart of block A of Fig. 2); (I) the discordance between the Dolomia Principale Fm. and the Saltrio Fm.; (J) thin sections of the layer embedding the dinosaur bones; (K) stratigraphic log of the Saltrio quarry, based on Croce (2005), with geological time scale and ammonites zones based on Sacchi Vialli (1964) and Ogg & Hinnov (2012). Abbreviations: c, crinoids; f, foraminifers; g, gastropods; o, ostracods. Scale bars equal 200 km in (A), 30 km in (B), six km in (C), one km in (D), one mm in (K), and 150 cm in (L). Photos by F. Berra, G. Bindellini, M. Croce, and G. Pasini; drawings by M. Croce and S. Maganuco.
Figure 1: Fossil location and geological setting. (A–C) Outline maps of Italy, Lombardy, Varese Province, and Saltrio Municipality.
Scale bars equal 200 km in (A), 30 km in (B), six km in (C).
Figure 1: Fossil location and geological setting. (D) satellite view of the Saltrio area, with map marker indicating the Saltrio quarry; (E) map marker indicating the stratigraphic log in the Saltrio quarry; (F) the ammonite Paracoroniceras cf. gmuendense and (G) the nautiloid Cenoceras striatum, both found associated in the layer containing the dinosaur bones; (H) glauconite present as accessory mineral in block C (counterpart of block A of Fig. 2); (I) the discordance between the Dolomia Principale Fm. and the Saltrio Fm.; (J) thin sections of the layer embedding the dinosaur bones; (K) stratigraphic log of the Saltrio quarry, based on Croce (2005), with geological time scale and ammonites zones based on Sacchi Vialli (1964) and Ogg & Hinnov (2012). Abbreviations: c, crinoids; f, foraminifers; g, gastropods; o, ostracods.
Scale bars equal one mm in (K), and 150 cm in (L). Photos by F. Berra, G. Bindellini, M. Croce, and G. Pasini; drawings by M. Croce and S. Maganuco.
Figure 2: Taphonomy of the Saltrio theropod (block A). Bones of Saltriovenator mapped in temporal sequence (A–C), gradually emerging from the embedding rock during acid preparation of block A. Numbers refer to each fragment, not to a specific anatomical position. The latter is reported in other figures, for fragments that were later reconnected into more complete bones. Abbreviations as in text, and as follows: ind, indeterminate bone; ir, indeterminate rib; l (left) and r (right) are specified for fragments of paired bones certainly (appendicular elements) or tentatively (ribs) positioned in the skeleton. Macroborings facing front, side and back are mapped respectively with yellow circles, semicircles, and hatched circles. Scale bars equal 10 cm. Photos by G. Bindellini and C. Dal Sasso.
Figure 4: Selected elements used in the diagnosis of Saltriovenator zanellai n. gen. n. sp. Right humerus in medial (A), frontal (B) and distal (C) views; (D) left scapula, medial view; (E) right scapular glenoid and coracoid, lateral view; (F) furcula, ventral view; tooth, labial (G) and apical (H) views; (I) left humerus, medial view; right second metacarpal in dorsal (J), lateral (L) and distal (N) views; first phalanx of the right second digit in dorsal (K), lateral (M) and proximal (O) views; (P–T) right third digit in proximal, dorsal and lateral views; (U) right distal tarsal IV, proximal view; third right metatarsal in proximal (V) and frontal (X) views; second right metatarsal, proximal (W) and frontal (Y) views; (Z) reconstructed skeleton showing identified elements (red).
Abbreviations as in text, asterisks mark autapomorphic traits.
Scale bars: 10 cm in (A)–(E), (I), and (U)–(Y); two cm in (F), and (J)–(T); one cm in (G).
Photos by G. Bindellini, C. Dal Sasso and M. Zilioli; drawing by M. Auditore.
Figure 5: Cranio-mandibular fragments, tooth, and ribs of Saltriovenator zanellai. Indeterminate cranial fragment (A–B); right splenial in lateral (C), rostral (D) and ventral (E) views; right prearticular in lateral (F) and rostral views (G); sketch of the right prearticular of MOR 693 (Allosaurus fragilis) with virtual cross-section (H) diagnostic for G, also confirmed by CT slicing of the left side element of MOR 693 (I); splenial and prearticular in medial view, positioned in a reconstructed right lower jawof Saltriovenator (J). Maxillary or dentary tooth in labial (K) and apical (L) views; close-up of the distal carina and denticles in lingual (M) and distal (N) views. Left cervical rib (O) in craniolateral view; fragmentary right (P) and left (Q) dorsal ribs in craniolateral view.
Abbreviations as in text, ribs labeled as in Fig. 2 maps and caption. Scale bars equal two cm in (A)–(I), five cm in (J), one cm in (K), five mm in (L), one mm in (M)–(N), five cm in (O)–(Q).
Photos by G. Bindellini, C. Dal Sasso, and M. Zilioli; drawing by C. Dal Sasso.
Systematic Paleontology
DINOSAURIA Owen, 1842
THEROPODA Marsh, 1881
NEOTHEROPODA Bakker, 1986
CERATOSAURIA Marsh, 1884
Saltriovenator zanellai gen. et sp. nov.
Etymology. Saltrio, Italian toponym name, from the locality where the holotype was found; venator, Latin word for hunter, it also refers to a type of Roman gladiator; zanellai, Latin genitive dedicated to Angelo Zanella, who discovered the fossil.
Holotype. MSNM V3664, very fragmentary and disarticulated skeleton (Figs. 4–13), represented by the following elements (among brackets, number of fragments per bone): partial right splenial (2) and right prearticular (1); cervical (1) and dorsal (9) ribs; furcula (1), incomplete left scapula (16), right scapular glenoid (1), partial right coracoid (5), fragmentary right sternal plate (2); right humerus (2), and proximal half of left humerus (2); ?right ?distal carpal, right metacarpal II, right phalanx II-1, fragmentary right phalanx II-2, and tip of the ?second right ungual phalanx; complete third right manual digit (phalanges III-1 to III-4); right distal tarsals III and IV, proximal portions of right metatarsals II, III, IV, and V(2).
Referred material. MSNM V3659, one maxillary or dentary tooth (Figs. 4 and 5).
Comments. As noted above, the discovery of all skeletal elements at the same time in a very restricted spot, the fact that all of them are of matching size, and that fragmentary and anatomically adjacent elements are of matching morphology, leave no doubt that all bones referred to the holotype come from the same individual. We prudentially exclude from the holotype the single tooth, which was found relatively associated to the bones but lacking its root and any jaw bone connection, thus raising the doubt that it might represent a shed tooth.
Type locality. “Salnova” quarry, Saltrio, Varese Province, Lombardy (northern Italy).
Horizon and Age. Saltrio Fm. (sensu Gnaccolini, 1964), bucklandi Zone, early Sinemurian (199.3–197.5 mya) (Ogg & Hinnov, 2012).
Diagnosis. Mid-to-large sized ceratosaurian characterized by the following unique combination of anatomical features (autapomorphies marked by asterisk—see also Fig. 4): humerus with deltopectoral crest protruding craniomedially for more than twice the shaft diameter, with distal lamina forming an abrupt corner (about 90°) with the proximodistal axis of the humeral shaft; metacarpal II with hypertrofied semicircular extensor lip protruding over the condylar level* and bordering dorsolaterally a very deep and wide extensor pit; phalanx II-1 with flexor palmar groove which is deep and narrow*, and bearing a distinct bump distal to the dorsal extensor process*; manual ungual III with prominent flexor tubercle which is distinctly separated from articular facet by a concave cleft.
.....
Simplified evolutionary tree of predatory dinosaurs (theropods). Saltriovenator predates the massive meat-eating dinosaurs by over 25 million years: it is the oldest known ceratosaurian, and the world's largest predatory dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic. During the Jurassic, the three- fingered tetanuran theropods appeared, which gave rise to birds.
Conclusions
Saltriovenator zanellai gen. et sp. nov. is a new theropod dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic of Northern Italy. It represents the third named species of non-avian dinosaur from Italy, the first of Jurassic age. Saltriovenator shows a combination of ceratosaurian and tetanuran features, supporting close relationships between the two averostran lineages with the exclusion of coelophysoid-grade theropods. It also represents the first skeletal material supporting the occurrence of large and robustly-built predatory dinosaurs just at the aftermath of the Triassic–Jurassic boundary extinction events. Accordingly, the Italian ceratosaurian fills a stratigraphic and ecomorphological gap between the relatively more gracile coelophysoid-grade neotheropods (known from the Late Triassic to the Early Jurassic) and the large-bodied averostrans that occupied the majority of the apex predatory roles in the terrestrial ecosystems between the Middle Jurassic and the end of the Cretaceous.
The phylogenetic framework integrated with the new combination of features present in Saltriovenator dismisses the “II–III–IV homology pattern” in the interpretation of the tetanuran (and avian) hand, and suggests a complex process leading to the atrophied forelimb of later ceratosaurians. The evolution of a stocky and robust hand occurred in ceratosaurians before the relative shortening and the loss of predatory function: such a step-wise scenario raises intriguing perspectives on what adaptive and developmental factors led from a “Saltriovenator-like” condition to the aberrant condition present in Limusaurus and abelisaurids.
Cristiano Dal Sasso, Simone Maganuco and Andrea Cau. 2018. The Oldest Ceratosaurian (Dinosauria: Theropoda), from the Lower Jurassic of Italy, Sheds Light on the Evolution of the Three-fingered Hand of Birds. PeerJ. 6:e5976. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5976
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شاهد قناة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على اليوتيوب لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
رابط مدونة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات في أي وقت حــــتى لو تم حذفها من هنا شاهد صفحة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على الفيس بوك لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
تعرف على ترتيب مواضيع منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات (حتى لا تختلط عليك الامور) من هنا
ملاحظة هامة: كل عمليات تنزيل، رفع، وتعديل المواضيع الجاهزة تتم بطريقة آلية، ونعتذر عن اي موضوع مخالف او مخل بالحياء مرفوع بالمدونات الجاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات، ولكم ان تقوموا بحذف هذه المواضيع والمشاركات والطريقة بسيطة وسهلة. ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــسلامـ.
A new marine lizard showing exceptional soft tissue preservation was found in Late Cretaceous deposits of the Apulian Platform (Puglia, Italy). Primitivus manduriensis gen. et sp. nov. is not only the first evidence of the presence of dolichosaurs in a southern Italian Carbonate Platform, filling a palaeogeographic gap in the Mediterranean Tethys, but also extends the range of this group to the upper Campanian–lower Maastrichtian. Our parsimony analysis recovers a monophyletic non-ophidian pythonomorph clade, including Tetrapodophis amplectus at the stem of Mosasauroidea + Dolichosauridae, which together represent the sister group of Ophidia (modern and fossil snakes). Based on Bayesian inference instead, Pythonomorpha is monophyletic, with Ophidia representing the more deeply nested clade, and the new taxon as basal to all other pythonomorphs. Primitivus displays a fairly conservative morphology in terms of both axial elongation of the trunk and limb reduction, and the coexistence of aquatic adaptations with features hinting at the retention of the ability to move on land suggests a semi-aquatic lifestyle. The exceptional preservation of mineralized muscles, portions of the integument, cartilages and gut content provides unique sources of information about this extinct group of lizards. The new specimen may represent local persistence of a relict dolichosaur population until almost the end of the Cretaceous in the Mediterranean Tethys, and demonstrates the incompleteness of our knowledge of dolichosaur temporal and spatial distributions.
Figure 1. Holotype of Primitivus manduriensis gen. et sp. nov. (MPUR NS 161) at natural (a) and UV (b) light as exposed from the matrix in dorsal view. The imaging under UV radiations is a composite of two pictures. Scale bars: 5 cm.
Systematic palaeontology
Reptilia Linnaeus, 1758
Squamata Oppel, 1811
Pythonomorpha Cope, 1869
DOLICHOSAURIDAE Gervais, 1852
Definition. Dolichosauridae is here defined as the group including all taxa sharing a more recent common ancestor with Dolichosaurus longicollis than with Aigialosaurus sp. In our study, this includes the following genera: Dolichosaurus, Pontosaurus, Primitivus gen. nov., Adriosaurus, Acteosaurus, and Aphanizocnemus (cf. Nopcsa [1903] and Conrad [2008]).
Diagnosis. Dolichosauridae is here defined as the group of non-ophidian pythonomorphs characterized by the following combination of features: non-sutural contact between premaxilla and maxilla; jugal lacking large posterior process; postorbital portion of postfrontal + postorbital forming half or more of the posterior orbital margin; hypapophyses/hypapophyseal peduncles extending to the tenth presacral/precloacal vertebra or beyond (10–12 cervical vertebrae); 32–40 presacral/precloacal vertebrae; reduced scapula and coracoid; tail deep, laterally compressed (cf. Pierce & Caldwell [2004], Caldwell [2006,2000], Palci & Caldwell [2010]).
Primitivus manduriensis gen. et sp. nov.
Etymology. The genus is named after the famous red wine grape variety, ‘Primitivo’, native to and grown in great quantities in the Salento Peninsula (Puglia, southern Italy). The species name has been chosen to honour the full name of the wine, ‘Primitivo di Manduria’, which is not only produced around the town of Manduria (Taranto, Puglia), but also in other localities of the Salento Peninsula, including Nardò, where the specimen was found.
Holotype. MPUR NS 161, an almost complete skeleton mostly in articulation, exposed in dorsal view, partially embedded in the rock, and missing the terminal portion of the tail and some elements of the skull. Together with the skeleton, there are abundant soft tissues preserved, including permineralized muscle fibres and integument.
Locality and stratigraphy. Nardò, Lecce (Puglia, southern Italy); higher portion of the informal geological unit ‘Calcari di Melissano’, Apulian Carbonate Platform.
Age. Upper Campanian–lower Maastrichtian, based on microfossils.
Diagnosis. The new taxon can be distinguished from other dolichosaurids by the following unique combination of features: contact between frontal and prefrontal limited in the dorsal view; sutural contact between the septomaxilla anterolateral margin and the maxilla; the septomaxilla posterolateral margin in contact with the nasal; 10 cervical vertebrae + 22 dorsal vertebrae (32 presacrals); bowtie-shaped astragalus (with both a dorsal and a ventral notch); calcaneum with a proximal concavity for articulation with the fibula; deeply imbricated, small sub-circular scales on the lateral sides of the trunk and limbs; larger diamond-shaped scales on the trunk dorsal region; transversally expanded subcaudal scales.
Figure 12. Primitivus manduriensis three-dimensional model and life reconstruction. The specimen is preserved in sediments deposited in the shallower portion of an inner lagoon of the Apulian Carbonate Platform, and is inferred to have a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Three-dimensional model (a) and life reconstruction (b) created by Fabio Manucci.
Ilaria Paparella, Alessandro Palci, Umberto Nicosia and Michael W. Caldwell. 2018. A New Fossil Marine Lizard with Soft Tissues from the Late Cretaceous of southern Italy. Royal Society Open Science. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.172411
كيف تحصل على مدونة جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات من هنا
شاهد قناة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على اليوتيوب لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
رابط مدونة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات في أي وقت حــــتى لو تم حذفها من هنا شاهد صفحة منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بألاف المواضيع والمشاركات على الفيس بوك لمزيد من الشرح من هنا
تعرف على ترتيب مواضيع منتدى مدونات بلوجر جاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات (حتى لا تختلط عليك الامور) من هنا
ملاحظة هامة: كل عمليات تنزيل، رفع، وتعديل المواضيع الجاهزة تتم بطريقة آلية، ونعتذر عن اي موضوع مخالف او مخل بالحياء مرفوع بالمدونات الجاهزة بآلاف المواضيع والمشاركات، ولكم ان تقوموا بحذف هذه المواضيع والمشاركات والطريقة بسيطة وسهلة. ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــسلامـ.
