Diplodocoidea

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Diplodocoidea
Skeletal reconstruction of Apatosaurus at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.

Skeletal reconstruction of Apatosaurus at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh .

Temporal occurrence
Upper Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous ( Kimmeridgium to Coniacium )
157.3 to 86.3 million years
Locations

North America , South America , Europe , Africa

Systematics
Dinosaur (dinosauria)
Lizard dinosaur (Saurischia)
Sauropodomorpha
Sauropods (Sauropoda)
Diplodocoidea
Scientific name
Diplodocoidea
Marsh , 1884

The Diplodocoidea are a group of sauropod dinosaurs that comprise the families Diplodocidae , Dicraeosauridae, and Rebbachisauridae . They first appeared in the Upper Jurassic , where they achieved the greatest biodiversity . While the Diplodocidae died out on the Jurassic-Cretaceous border, the Dicraeosauridae survived into the Lower Cretaceous . The Rebbachisauridae, the last family of the Diplodocoidea, appeared for the first time in the Lower Cretaceous and was represented until the early Upper Cretaceous ( Coniacium ).

More recent tooth finds from the Campanium and Maastrichtian of the Bauru group in Brazil , however, indicate that representatives of the Diplodocoidea could have survived into the late Upper Cretaceous . The Diplodocoidea have been identified from North America, South America, Europe and Africa.

features

The Diplodocoidea differed from other sauropods in particular in the structure of the skull and the spine. Seen from above, the jaws formed an approximately rectangular set of teeth. The teeth were limited to the foremost area of ​​the jaw. These features were most pronounced in the Rebbachisaurids, in which all teeth were arranged in a frontal, straight row of teeth, which was oriented perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the jaw. This characteristic of the Rebbachisauriden is unique among all dinosaurs. The narrow tooth crowns were also characteristic of the Diplodocoidea : For example, more original sauropods had broad, overlapping tooth crowns.

The Diplodocidae and the Dicraeosauridae are characterized by forked spinous processes of the cervical and dorsal vertebrae. In the dicraeosaurids Amargasaurus and Dicraeosaurus, these forked spinous processes are over four times as high as the corresponding vertebral bodies. This feature may have allowed the formation of elastic ligaments that ran within the bifurcations along the spine. The Diplodocidae were also characterized by a greatly elongated tail, which was composed of over 80 vertebrae - almost twice as many as in some of the more primitive sauropods. The rear approx. 30 caudal vertebrae were also convex and elongated on both sides. This specialized tail (“whip tail”) could have had a direct defense function, but it could also have served to generate noise. Finds of elongated, bilaterally convex caudal vertebrae in dicraeosaurids and rebbachisaurids could show that these groups also had a whip tail. However, this hypothesis can only be confirmed or refuted by further fossil discoveries.

Systematics and definition

Systematics

Diplodocoid cladogram (after Sereno, Wilson, Witmer, Whitlock, Maga et al. (2007))

The Diplodocoidea form together with the Macronaria the group Neosauropoda . The Macronaria contain the Brachiosauridae , Camarasaurus and the Titanosauria . The Neosauropoda include all derived (advanced) sauropods.

The systematics within the Diplodocoidea is well known and relatively undisputed - only the systematic position of Haplocanthosaurus is problematic . Within the Diplodocoidea three families are distinguished: the more original Rebbachisauridae as well as the Dicraeosauridae and the Diplodocidae. The Diplodocidae and the Dicraeosauridae are often grouped together as Flagellicaudata . Various original genera such as Amphicoelias and Suuwassea are classified within the Diplodocoidea, but placed outside the three families.

The following is a recent example of a cladogram (simplified from Harris and Dodson, 2004):

 Diplodocoidea  
  Fragellicaudata  

 Suuwassea


  Dicraeosauridae  

 Dicraeosaurus


   

 Amargasaurus



  Diplodocidae  

 Apatosaurus


  Diplodocinae  

 Barosaurus


   

 Diplodocus




Template: Klade / Maintenance / 3

  Rebbachisauridae  

 Rebbachisaurus


   

 Nigersaurus


   

 Rayososaurus


Template: Klade / Maintenance / 3


Research history and definition

In 1884 Othniel Charles Marsh named the family Diplodocidae with the only genus Diplodocus . The name Diplodocoidea was first used by Paul Upchurch (1995). Despite this, Marsh was awarded the name Diplodocoidea, as according to the International Rules for Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), the imprint of a family (ending -idae ) automatically includes possible subfamilies ( -inae ) and superfamilies ( -oidea ).

Upchurch (1995) initially assigned the Diplodocoidea to three families: The Diplodocidae, the Dicraeosauridae and the Nemegtosauridae . The Nemegtosauridae, consisting of the genera Nemegtosaurus and Quaesitosaurus , was only known from skull finds that show clear similarities with the typical skull shape of the Diplodocoidea. Today, however, these genera are considered to be representatives of the Titanosauria; the similarities in the shape of the skull are attributed to convergent evolution . Today the diplodocoidea as main line based are Taxon ( stem-based definition ) defines that all taxa comprises more detail with Diplodocus than Saltasaurus were related.

Generic list

Web links

Commons : Diplodocoidea  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pablo A. Gallina, Sebastián Apesteguia: Cathartesaura anaerobica gen. Et sp. nov., a new rebbachisaurid (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Huincul Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Río Negro, Argentina. In: Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales. Vol. 7, No. 2, 2005, ISSN  1514-5158 , pp. 153–166, digitized version (PDF; 1.03 MB) ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.macn.gov.ar
  2. Paul Sereno: Dicraeosauridae. (No longer available online.) In: Taxon Search. Archived from the original on August 14, 2014 ; accessed on August 13, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.taxonsearch.org
  3. ^ Paul Sereno: Rebbachisauridae. (No longer available online.) In: Taxon Search. Archived from the original on August 14, 2014 ; accessed on August 13, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.taxonsearch.org
  4. ^ Paul Sereno : Diplodocoidea. (No longer available online.) In: Taxon Search. Archived from the original on August 14, 2014 ; accessed on August 13, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.taxonsearch.org
  5. a b c d Jeffrey A. Wilson: Overview of Sauropod Phylogeny and Evolution. In: Kristina Curry Rogers, Jeffrey A. Wilson (Eds.): The Sauropods: Evolution and Paleobiology. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2005, ISBN 0-520-24623-3 , pp. 23-26.
  6. Jeffrey A. Wilson, MB Smith: New remains of Amphicoelias Cope (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Upper Jurassic of Montana and diplodocoid phylogeny. In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Vol. 16, Supplement to No. 3 = Abstracts of Papers. Fifty-Sixth Annual Meeting, Society of Vertebrate. Paleontology American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, October 16-19, 1996 , 1996, ISSN  0272-4634 , p. 73A.
  7. a b c Jerald D. Harris, Peter Dodson : A new diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Montana, USA. In: Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. Vol. 49, No. 2, ISSN  0567-7920 , pp. 197-210, online .
  8. Michael P. Taylor, Darren Naish: The phylogenetic taxonomy of Diplodocoidea (Dinosauria: Sauropoda). In: PaleoBios. Vol. 25, No. 2, 2005, ISSN  0031-0298 , pp. 1-7.
  9. ^ A b Paul Upchurch , Paul M. Barrett , Peter Dodson : Sauropoda. In: David B. Weishampel , Peter Dodson, Halszka Osmólska (eds.): The Dinosauria . 2nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 , pp. 259-324.
  10. Jeffrey A. Wilson: Redescription of the Mongolian Sauropod Nemegtosaurus mongoliensis Nowinski (Dinosauria: Saurischia) and comments on Late Cretaceous Sauropod diversity. In: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. Vol. 3, No. 3, 2005, ISSN  1477-2019 , pp. 283-318, doi : 10.1017 / S1477201905001628 .
  11. Jeffrey A. Wilson, Paul C. Sereno: Early Evolution and Higher-level Phylogeny of Sauropod Dinosaurs (= Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Vol. 18, Supplement to No. 2 = Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Memoir. Vol. 5, ISSN  1062-161X ). Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Chicago IL 1998.
  12. Ismar de Souza Carvalho, Leonardo dos Santos Avilla, Leonardo Salgado : Amazonsaurus maranhensis gen. Et sp. nov. (Sauropoda, Diplodocoidea) from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) of Brazil. In: Cretaceous Research. Vol. 24, No. 6, 2003, ISSN  0195-6671 , pp. 697-713, doi : 10.1016 / j.cretres.2003.07.005 .
  13. Oliver WM Rauhut , Kristian Remes, Regina Fechner, Gerardo Cladera, Pablo Puerta: Discovery of a short-necked sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period of Patagonia. In: Nature . Vol. 435, No. 7042, 2005, pp. 670-672, doi : 10.1038 / nature03623 .
  14. ^ Emanuel Tschopp, Octávio Mateus: The skull and neck of a new flagellicaudatan sauropod from the Morrison Formation and its implication for the evolution and ontogeny of diplodocid dinosaurs. In: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. Vol. 11, No. 7, 2013, doi : 10.1080 / 14772019.2012.746589 .
  15. Leonardo Salgado, Alberto Garrido, Sergio E. Cocca, Juan R. Cocca: Lower Cretaceous rebbachisaurid sauropods from Cerro Aguada del León (Lohan Cura Formation), Neuquén Province, northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Vol. 24, No. 4, 2004, pp. 903-912, doi : 10.1671 / 0272-4634 (2004) 024 [0903: LCRSFC] 2.0.CO; 2 .
  16. Leonardo Salgado, Ismar de Souza Carvalho, Alberto C. Garrido: Zapalasaurus bonapartei, un nuevo saurópodo de La Formación La Amarga (Cretacico Inferior), noroeste de Patagonia, Provincia de Neuquén, Argentina. In: Géobios. Vol. 39, No. 5, 2006, ISSN  0016-6995 , pp. 695-707, doi : 10.1016 / j.geobios.2005.06.001 .
  17. José Ignacio Canudo, José L. Barco, Diego Castanera, Fidel Torcida Fernández-Baldor: New record of a sauropod in the Jurassic – Cretaceous transition of the Iberian Peninsular (Spain): palaeobiogeographical implications. In: Paleontological Journal. Vol. 84, No. 3, 2010, ISSN  0031-0220 , pp. 427-435, doi : 10.1007 / s12542-010-0057-x .