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The Paleoneurology of Ichthyopterygia and Sauropterygia: Diverse Endocranial Anatomies of Secondarily Aquatic Diapsids

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Paleoneurology of Amniotes

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Abstract

Most meso- and megapredatory niches across Mesozoic marine ecosystems were gradually occupied by the secondarily aquatic Ichthyopterygia and Sauropterygia. Although their presumed Early Triassic origins remain obscured, the subsequent radiation and diversification of these diapsid superorders is reasonably well documented in the fossil record. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, the Triassic sauropterygian genera Nothosaurus and Placodus were among the first taxa for which the cranial endocast was extracted and described. The advent of computed tomography, circa 50 years after these pivotal paleoneurological investigations, has led to its adoption as the tool of choice for the non-destructive assessment of neurosensory adaptations in extinct vertebrates. Despite the increasing availability of paleoneurological data on extinct diapsids, Ichthyopterygia and Sauropterygia have received relatively modest, albeit growing, attention since. Here we review paleoneurological insights gleaned from these fossils to date and identify endocranial and neurosensory modifications associated with increasingly pelagic lifestyles and ecological specializations. Nevertheless, a broader ichthyopterygian and sauropterygian sample will be required to facilitate high-resolution taxon-wide comparisons and discern between endocranial changes accompanying progressive adaptation to aquatic niches and conservative features informing on phylogenetic identity. Systematic evaluation will reveal the neurosensory developments that facilitated these Mesozoic ecological success stories in aquatic environments.

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Abbreviations

BRLSI:

Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute, Bath, UK

D:

Musée de Rhinopolis, Gannat, France

LEICT:

New Walk Museum, Leicester, UK

MB.R:

Museum für Paläontologie der Alexander von Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany

MNHN:

Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

MUPA-ATZ:

El Atance collection, Museo de Paleontología de Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca, Spain

NHMUK:

Natural History Museum, London, UK

NME:

Naturkundemuseum Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany

SGU:

Saratov State University, Saratov, Russia

SM:

Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt, Germany

SMNS:

Staatlisches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart, Germany

SMUSMP:

Shuler Museum of Paleontology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, USA

TW:

Museum TwentseWelle Enschede, The Netherlands

UMO:

Urwelt-Museum, Bayreuth, Germany

UN-DG:

Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Departamento de Geologia, Bogota, Colombia

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Acknowledgments

We thank the editors María Teresa Dozo, Ariana Paulina-Carabajal, Thomas E. Macrini and Stig Walsh, for inviting us to contribute to this special volume. We are grateful to Serjoscha W. Evers, Carlos de Miguel Chaves, and Torsten M. Scheyer for offering feedback that helped to improve this contribution. Henk Wim van Dorssen (then Museum TwentseWelle, Enschede, the Netherlands) graciously provided the picture of the Nothosaurus cranium included as Fig. 2.6. We thank Matt Williams (Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute), Sandra Chapman (Natural History Museum, London), Erin Maxwell (Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart), Mark Evans (New Walk Museum, Leicester), Mark Mavrogordato (μ-Vis, University of Southampton), and Rhinopolis Museum (Ganat, France) for access to specimens. We acknowledge the Naturkundemuseum Erfurt (Erfurt, Germany) for curating specimen NME 16/4 of which the endosseous labyrinth was here visualized through data created by Neenan et al. (2017) and made available through MorphoMuseum (https://morphomuseum.com/specimenfiles/view/326). We also thank all contributors to PhyloPic for making the silhouettes presented in Figs. 3.1 and 3.2 freely available. BCM is funded by NERC BETR Project grant NE/P013724/1 and ERC grant 788203 (INNOVATION).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Rémi Allemand

  2. Bristol Palaeobiology Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Benjamin C. Moon

  3. Department of Organismal Biology, Subdepartment of Evolution and Development, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Dennis F. A. E. Voeten

  4. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble cedex 09, France

    Dennis F. A. E. Voeten

  5. Naturalis Biodiversity Center, CR, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Dennis F. A. E. Voeten

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  1. Rémi Allemand
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  3. Dennis F. A. E. Voeten
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Correspondence to Rémi Allemand .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Patagónico de Geología y Paleontología, CCT CONICET-CENPAT, Puerto Madryn, Argentina

    María Teresa Dozo

  2. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente, CONICET-Universidad Nacional del Comahue, San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina

    Ariana Paulina-Carabajal

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Thomas E. Macrini

  4. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Midlothian, UK

    Stig Walsh

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Allemand, R., Moon, B.C., Voeten, D.F.A.E. (2023). The Paleoneurology of Ichthyopterygia and Sauropterygia: Diverse Endocranial Anatomies of Secondarily Aquatic Diapsids. In: Dozo, M.T., Paulina-Carabajal, A., Macrini, T.E., Walsh, S. (eds) Paleoneurology of Amniotes . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13983-3_3

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