Arizonasaurus
| Arizonasaurus Temporal range: Middle Triassic, 243 Ma | |
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| Model, Museum am Lowentor, Stuttgard | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Paracrocodylomorpha |
| Branch: | †Poposauroidea |
| Family: | †Ctenosauriscidae |
| Genus: | †Arizonasaurus Welles, 1947 |
| Species | |
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Arizonasaurus was a ctenosauriscid archosaur from the Middle Triassic (243 million years ago).[1] Arizonasaurus is found in the Middle Triassic Moenkopi Formation of northern Arizona. A fairly complete skeleton was found in 2002 by Sterling Nesbitt. The taxon has a large sailback formed by elongate neural spines of the vertebrae. The type species, Arizonasaurus babbitti, was named by Samuel Paul Welles in 1947.
Description
It had a sail made of tall neural spines, that was similar to those of other basal archosaurs like Ctenosauriscus, Lotosaurus, Bromsgroveia, and Hypselorhachis.[2]
Arizonasaurus is described from two specimens of braincases. Some ancestral features of the braincase of Arizonasaurus are plesiomorphic for crurotarsans.[1]
Below is a list of characteristics found by Nesbitt in 2005 that distinguish Arizonasaurus:[2]
- a deep fossa hidden from view on the posteroventral edge of the upward-pointing process of the maxilla;
- and a tongue-groove attachment between the pubis and the ilium.
Discovery and naming
The type species, Arizonasaurus babbitti, was named by Samuel Paul Welles in 1947 on the basis of a few teeth and a maxilla, labelled as specimen UCMP 36232.[3] A fairly complete skeleton was found in 2002 by Sterling Nesbitt.[4]
Classification
Arizonasaurus was closely related to Ctenosauriscus, and together with a few other genera they make up Ctenosauriscidae. The ctenosauriscids were closely related to the poposaurids, as shown by a few shared derived characteristics.[4] The pelvic girdle in Arizonasaurus unites this taxon with Ctenosauriscus, Lotosaurus, Bromsgroveia, and Hypselorhachus.[2] Together, newly identified pseudosuchian features act as evidence that poposaurids, like Poposaurus, Sillosuchus, and Chatterjeea, and ctenosauriscids form a monophyletic group and are both derived rauisuchians.[4]
Below is a phylogenetic cladogram simplified from Butler et al. in 2011 showing the cladistics of Archosauriformes, focusing mostly on Pseudosuchia:[5]
| Poposauroidea |
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Biogeography
Arizonasaurus is from the middle Triassic Moenkopi Formation of northern Arizona. The divergence of birds and crocodiles occurred earlier than previously thought, as the presence of a poposaurid in the early Middle Triassic suggests. Ctenosauriscids from the Middle Triassic allow the distribution of Triassic faunas to be more widespread, now in Europe, Asia, North America and Africa. The fauna of the Moenkopi Formation represent a stage transitional fauna between faunas of older and younger age.[4]
References
- 1 2 Gower, D.J. & Nesbitt, S.J. (2006). "The braincase of Arizonasaurus babbitti-further evidence for the non-monophyly of ‘rauisuchian’ archosaurs". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 26 (1): 79–87. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26[79:TBOABE]2.0.CO;2.
- 1 2 3 Nesbitt, S.J. (2005). "Osteology of the Middle Triassic pseudosuchian archosaur Arizonasaurus babbitti". Historical Biology. 8 (1): 19–47. doi:10.1080/08912960500476499.
- ↑ Welles, S.P. (1947). "Vertebrates from the Upper Moenkopi Formation of northern Arizona". University of California Publications in Geological Sciences. 27 (7): 241–294.
- 1 2 3 4 Nesbitt, S.J. (2003). "Arizonasaurus and its implications for archosaur divergence". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 270: S234–S237. PMC 1809943
. PMID 14667392. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2003.0066. - ↑ Butler, R.J.; Brusatte, S.J.; Reich, M.; Nesbitt, S.J.; Schoch, R.R.; Hornung, J.J. (2011). Andrew A. Farke, ed. "The Sail-Backed Reptile Ctenosauriscus from the Latest Early Triassic of Germany and the Timing and Biogeography of the Early Archosaur Radiation". PLoS ONE. 6 (10): e25693. PMC 3194824 . PMID 22022431. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0025693.
External links
- Artistic rendering of Arizonasaurus babbitti
- Osteology of the Middle Triassic pseudosuchian archosaur Arizonasaurus babbitti
- Initial description of complete skeleton by Sterling Nesbitt in Royal Society Biology Letters
- Braincase of Arizonasaurus babbitti
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