Fulltext

Shell bone histology of solemydid turtles (stem Testudines): palaeoecological implications

Scheyer, T. ; Pérez-García, A. ; Murelaga, X.

In: Organisms Diversity & Evolution, 2015, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 199-212

Zum persönliche Liste hinzufügen
    Titel
    • Shell bone histology of solemydid turtles (stem Testudines): palaeoecological implications
    Autor
    • Scheyer, T.. Paläontologisches Institut und Museum, Universität Zürich, Karl-Schmid-Strasse 4, CH-8006, Zürich, Switzerland
    • Pérez-García, A.. Centro de Geologia, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL), Edificio C6, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal
    • Murelaga, X.. Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del País Vasco/EHU, Apartado 644, 48080, Bilbao, Spain
    Dokumententyp
    • Postprint
    Sprache
    • Englisch
    Veröffentlicht in
    • Organisms Diversity & Evolution, 2015, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 199-212. Springer Berlin Heidelberg
    Andere elektronische Ausgabe
    OAI-PMH-ID
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:333141
    Summary
    Lately, solemydid turtles have been repeatedly recovered as stem Testudines, indicating that they belong to neither one of the two major branches of crown turtles, the Pancryptodira and Panpleurodira. Despite their wide temporal (Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous) and spatial (North America and Europe) distributions, solemydid turtles are not particularly well known, as exemplified by the fact that only a single skull has been described for the whole group so far. Furthermore, the palaeoecology of solemydid turtles is still contested with hypotheses ranging from semi-aquatic to terrestrial lifestyles. However, the habitat preference of stem Testudines, such as solemydids, is important to understand the evolution and early radiation of the turtle crown, which is primitively aquatic. Here we describe the shell bone microanatomy and histological microstructures of solemydid turtles using a broad sample of taxa of different ages and localities, as well as review previous histological accounts, to elucidate the palaeoecology of the group independent of the geological setting and gross anatomy of the fossil finds. Our results indicate that Solemydidae share unique histological features pertaining to their strongly ornamented shell bones, which a) in cases allow taxonomic identification of even small shell fragments and b) unambiguously corroborate a terrestrial lifestyle of its members. The latter further supports a terrestrial lifestyle preference of most representatives of the turtle stem.