Equatorial pliosaurid from Venezuela marks the youngest South American occurrence of the clade

Abstract Pliosaurids were the dominant macropredators in aquatic environments at least since the Middle Jurassic until their extinction in the early Late Cretaceous. Until very recently, the Cretaceous record of Pliosauridae has been poor and difficult to interpret from the taxonomic and phylogeneti...

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Autores principales:	Dylan Bastiaans, Daniel Madzia, Jorge D. Carrillo-Briceño, Sven Sachs
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/3a1347b820c54fb1b43a97301f61c8fa
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:3a1347b820c54fb1b43a97301f61c8fa2021-12-02T16:30:10ZEquatorial pliosaurid from Venezuela marks the youngest South American occurrence of the clade10.1038/s41598-021-94515-82045-2322https://doaj.org/article/3a1347b820c54fb1b43a97301f61c8fa2021-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-94515-8https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Pliosaurids were the dominant macropredators in aquatic environments at least since the Middle Jurassic until their extinction in the early Late Cretaceous. Until very recently, the Cretaceous record of Pliosauridae has been poor and difficult to interpret from the taxonomic and phylogenetic perspective. Despite that the knowledge of Cretaceous pliosaurids improved in recent years, numerous aspects of their evolutionary history still remain only poorly known. Here, we report the first pliosaurid material from Venezuela. The taxon is most likely earliest Cenomanian in age, thus representing the youngest occurrence of Pliosauridae from South America. The Venezuelan taxon is based on a well-preserved tooth crown whose morphology and outer enamel structural elements appear to resemble especially those observable in the giant pliosaurid Sachicasaurus vitae from the Lower Cretaceous of Colombia. The new discovery extends the pliosaurid record on the continent by more than 10 million years and likely marks the southernmost Upper Cretaceous occurrence of Pliosauridae, worldwide. We also briefly discuss the affinities of the enigmatic Venezuelan elasmosaurid Alzadasaurus tropicus and highlight similarities to elasmosaurids from the Western Interior Seaway.Dylan BastiaansDaniel MadziaJorge D. Carrillo-BriceñoSven SachsNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Dylan Bastiaans Daniel Madzia Jorge D. Carrillo-Briceño Sven Sachs Equatorial pliosaurid from Venezuela marks the youngest South American occurrence of the clade
description	Abstract Pliosaurids were the dominant macropredators in aquatic environments at least since the Middle Jurassic until their extinction in the early Late Cretaceous. Until very recently, the Cretaceous record of Pliosauridae has been poor and difficult to interpret from the taxonomic and phylogenetic perspective. Despite that the knowledge of Cretaceous pliosaurids improved in recent years, numerous aspects of their evolutionary history still remain only poorly known. Here, we report the first pliosaurid material from Venezuela. The taxon is most likely earliest Cenomanian in age, thus representing the youngest occurrence of Pliosauridae from South America. The Venezuelan taxon is based on a well-preserved tooth crown whose morphology and outer enamel structural elements appear to resemble especially those observable in the giant pliosaurid Sachicasaurus vitae from the Lower Cretaceous of Colombia. The new discovery extends the pliosaurid record on the continent by more than 10 million years and likely marks the southernmost Upper Cretaceous occurrence of Pliosauridae, worldwide. We also briefly discuss the affinities of the enigmatic Venezuelan elasmosaurid Alzadasaurus tropicus and highlight similarities to elasmosaurids from the Western Interior Seaway.
format	article
author	Dylan Bastiaans Daniel Madzia Jorge D. Carrillo-Briceño Sven Sachs
author_facet	Dylan Bastiaans Daniel Madzia Jorge D. Carrillo-Briceño Sven Sachs
author_sort	Dylan Bastiaans
title	Equatorial pliosaurid from Venezuela marks the youngest South American occurrence of the clade
title_short	Equatorial pliosaurid from Venezuela marks the youngest South American occurrence of the clade
title_full	Equatorial pliosaurid from Venezuela marks the youngest South American occurrence of the clade
title_fullStr	Equatorial pliosaurid from Venezuela marks the youngest South American occurrence of the clade
title_full_unstemmed	Equatorial pliosaurid from Venezuela marks the youngest South American occurrence of the clade
title_sort	equatorial pliosaurid from venezuela marks the youngest south american occurrence of the clade
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/3a1347b820c54fb1b43a97301f61c8fa
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Equatorial pliosaurid from Venezuela marks the youngest South American occurrence of the clade

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