Rio, JP;
Mannion, P;
Tschopp, E;
Martin, JE;
Delfino, M;
(2020)
Reappraisal of the morphology and phylogenetic relationships of the alligatoroid crocodylian Diplocynodon hantoniensis from the late Eocene of the United Kingdom.
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
, 188
(2)
pp. 579-629.
10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz034.
Preview |
Text
zlz034.pdf - Published Version Download (10MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Diplocynodon is a genus of basal alligatoroid comprising nine species, which spanned the late Paleocene to middle Miocene of Europe. Despite recent revisions of most Diplocynodon species, one of the earliest named and most complete, Diplocynodon hantoniensis, has not been redescribed for over 150 years. This species is known from the remains of numerous individuals from the Priabonian (late Eocene) of Hampshire, United Kingdom. Here we re-describe and diagnose Diplocynodon hantoniensis, providing the first detailed description of postcranial anatomy in any basal alligatoroid. Diplocynodon hantoniensis is diagnosed by four autapomorphies, including retention of the ectopterygoid-pterygoid flexure throughout ontogeny. The well-preserved postcranial skeleton enables the interpretation of numerous muscle attachments, and the identification of two new morphological characters in the humerus. We re-score D. hantoniensis in a phylogenetic analysis, including all putative Diplocynodon species (103 taxa scored for 187 characters), under four different character weighting schemes. We recover a monophyletic Diplocynodon in three of the four analyses. However, the fourth analysis, with the strongest downweighting of homoplastic characters and missing data, recovers the Paleocene Diplocynodon remensis outside Diplocynodon. Our comprehensive revision facilitates comparisons within Diplocynodon and between other basal alligatoroids, forming the basis for comparing postcranial anatomy in other fossil crocodylians.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Reappraisal of the morphology and phylogenetic relationships of the alligatoroid crocodylian Diplocynodon hantoniensis from the late Eocene of the United Kingdom |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz034 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz034 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | 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 reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Crocodyliformes Taxa, Crocodylomorpha Taxa, Crocodylia Taxa, Eocene Palaeontology, phylogenetics, Phylogenetics, anatomy, comparative anatomy |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10071273 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
