Platecarp ( English Platecarpus ) - an extinct monotypic genus of aquatic lizards of the family of Mosasaurs , whose representatives lived about 85-80 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period ; their remains are found in the interval from the "middle" of the Santonian tier to the "beginning" of the sediments of the Campanian tier . Fossil remains were found in the United States , as well as possible specimens (presumably belonging to platecarpus) in Belgium and Africa [1] . At the moment, it is represented by one species - Platecarpus tympaniticus .
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| Platecarpus tympaniticus cope , 1869 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Platecarpus probably ate fish (including sharks), squid and ammonites - their teeth were less strong than those of tylosaurs , although they were still suitable for cutting flesh. Like other mosasaurs, they supposedly swam like eels, although recent research suggests that they were more like modern sharks in swimming style. An exceptionally well-preserved specimen of P. tympaniticus , known as LACM 128319 , shows skin imprints, pigmentation around the nostrils, bronchi, and the presence of a large portion of the tail , showing that this and other mosasaurs did not necessarily swim like eels, but were perhaps more powerful and faster swimmers. A copy is kept at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History [2] .
Comparing the isotopic composition of the teeth of the three genera of the Mosasaurs with the data known for the obviously cold-blooded fish of the genus Enchodus and certainly warm-blooded birds of the genus ichthyornis , American scientists obtained a body temperature of 36.3 ° C for platacarp [3] [4] .
Systematics
A cladogram compiled in 2011 based on an analysis conducted by paleontologists Takuya Konichi and Michael Caldwell [5] includes only one species in the genus.
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Notes
- ↑ Palmer, D. The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. - London: Marshall Editions, 1999 .-- 87 p. - ISBN 1-84028-152-9 .
- ↑ Lindgren, J .; Caldwell, MW; Konishi, T .; and Chiappe, LM Convergent Evolution in Aquatic Tetrapods: Insights from an Exceptional Fossil Mosasaur (eng.) // PLoS ONE. - 2010 .-- Vol. 5 , no. 8 . e11998. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0011998. PMC 2918493. PMID 20711249 .
- ↑ Endothermic mosasaurs? Possible thermoregulation of Late Cretaceous mosasaurs (Reptilia, Squamata) indicated by stable oxygen isotopes in fossil bioapatite in comparison with coeval marine fish and pelagic seabirds, 2016.
- ↑ Mozasaurs measured the temperature - turned out to be elevated!
- ↑ Konishi, Takuya; and Michael W. Caldwell. Two new plioplatecarpine (Squamata, Mosasauridae) genera from the Upper Cretaceous of North America, and a global phylogenetic analysis of plioplatecarpines (Eng.) // Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. - 2011. - Vol. 31 , no. 4 . - P. 754-783 . doi: 10.1080 / 02724634.2011.579023
Literature
- Everhart, Michael J. // Oceans of Kansas: A Natural History of the Western Interior Seaway. - 2005 .-- P. 165-169 .
- Lingham-Soliar T. The mosasaur "Angolasaurus" bocagei (Reptilia: Mosasauridae) from the Turonian of Angola re-interpreted as the earliest member of the genus Platecarpus (Eng.) // Palaeont. Z .. - 1994. - Vol. 68 , no. 1/2 . - P. 267-282 .
- Kiernan CR Stratigraphic distribution and habitat segregation of mosasaurs in the Upper Cretaceous of western and central Alabama, with an historical review of Alabama mosasaur discoveries (English) // Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. - 2002. - Vol. 22 , no. 1 . - P. 91-103 .