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[dinosaur] Brachydectes (Lysorophia) skull + Charente crocodilian feeding + Araripemys




Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


Some recent non-dino papers:


Free pdf:

Arjan Mann (2018)
Cranial ornamentation of a large Brachydectes newberryi (Recumbirostra: Lysorophia) from Linton, Ohio.
Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology 6: 91â96Â


Although the cranial anatomy of the lysorophian tetrapod Brachydectes has been reported in detail recently, many attributes of the group are inadequately known, and lysorophian systematics remain unclear. One under-described aspect of the genus is the development and variation of cranial ornamentation. Whereas the smallest skulls (< 5 mm in length) lack sculpturing, ornamentation increases in progressively larger specimens and is conspicuous in the largest (> 30 mm skull length) individuals. It includes rugose ornament on the anterior cranial roof elements (frontals and anterior parietals) and pustular ornament on the posterior elements (posterior parietals and postparietals). Such ornamentation is unique within recumbirostrans and is identified as an ontogenetic feature.

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Jordan GÃnet, Lee Rozada, Renaud Bourgeais & Ronan Allain (2018)
Taphonomic study of a pleurosternid turtle shell from the Early Cretaceous of AngeacâCharente, southwest France.
Lethaia (advance online publication)


The feeding behaviour of crocodilians leads to the formation of particular assemblages by accumulation of carcasses on the bottom or at the edge of water points, in addition to the characteristic marks it leaves on bones, making crocodilians important taphonomic agents. We report here the case of a Pleurosternidae turtle shell, Pleurosternon bullockii (Owen 1842), discovered in 2014 in AngeacâCharente in southâwestern France. The shell shows a range of tooth marks left by a crocodyliform. Several elements designate Goniopholis as the most likely author of the marks and support the use of the 'nutcracker' technique. Some marks appear to have healed, while others suggest that this P. bullockii individual suffered from shell diseases. Many turtle remains and some ornithomimosaur dinosaur bones from AngeacâCharente bear marks of a crocodyliform attack.

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Free pdf:


Saulo Limaverde, Rodrigo Vargas PÃgas, Rafael Damasceno, Chiara Villa, Gustavo Oliveira, Niels Bonde & Maria E. C. Leal (2018)
Interpreting character variation in turtles: Araripemys barretoi (Pleurodira: Pelomedusoides) from the Araripe Basin, Early Cretaceous of Northeastern Brazil
PeerJ Preprints 6:e27262v1Â



The Araripe Basin (Northeastern Brazil) has yielded a rich Cretaceous fossil fauna of both vertebrates and invertebrates found mainly in the Crato and Romualdo Formations, of Aptian and Albian ages respectively. Among the vertebrates, the turtles were proved quite diverse, with several specimens retrieved and five valid species described to this date for the Romualdo Fm. There were also records of turtles from Ipubi and Crato Fms., mainly fragmentary material which precluded proper specific identification; however, Araripemys barretoi is supposed to occur on both Crato and Romualdo Fms. Here we describe thirteen specimens of A. barretoi - including the first description of an almost complete individual, bearing a skull, from the Crato Fm. We report a great amount of morphological variation, interpreted as being essentially of intraspecific nature, including individual, sexual and ontogenetic variation.