TY  - JOUR
N2  - The early tetrapod Acanthostega gunnari is an iconic fossil taxon exhibiting skeletal morphology reflecting the transition of vertebrates from water onto land. Computed tomography data of two Acanthostega skulls was segmented using visualization software to digitally separate bone from matrix and individual bones of the skull from each other. A revised description of cranial and lower jaw anatomy in this taxon based on CT data includes new details of sutural morphology, the previously undescribed quadrate and articular bones, and the mandibular symphysis. Sutural morphology is used to infer loading regime in the skull during feeding, and suggests Acanthostega used its anterior jaws to initially seize prey while smaller posterior teeth were used to restrain struggling prey during ingestion. Novel methods were used to repair and retrodeform the skull, resulting in a three-dimensional digital reconstruction that features a longer postorbital region and more strongly hooked anterior lower jaw than previous attempts while supporting the presence of a midline gap between the nasals and median rostrals.
ID  - discovery10092913
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118882
PB  - PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
JF  - PLOS ONE
A1  - Porro, LB
A1  - Rayfield, EJ
A1  - Clack, JA
KW  - Skull
KW  -  Jaw
KW  -  Teeth
KW  -  Computed axial tomography
KW  -  Maxilla
KW  -  Cranium
KW  -  Joints (anatomy)
KW  -  Symphyses
TI  - Descriptive Anatomy and Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of the Skull of the Early Tetrapod Acanthostega gunnari Jarvik, 1952
AV  - public
Y1  - 2015/03/11/
VL  - 10
EP  - 32
IS  - 3
N1  - Copyright: © 2015 Porro et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
ER  -