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Reassessment of the evolutionary history of the late Triassic and early Jurassic sauropodomorph dinosaurs through comparative cladistics and the supermatrix approach

Regalado Fernández, Omar Rafael; (2020) Reassessment of the evolutionary history of the late Triassic and early Jurassic sauropodomorph dinosaurs through comparative cladistics and the supermatrix approach. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). Green open access

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Abstract

Non-sauropod sauropodomorphs, also known as 'basal sauropodomorphs' or 'prosauropods', have been thoroughly studied in recent years. Several hypotheses on the interrelationships within this group have been proposed, ranging from a complete paraphyly, where the group represents a grade from basal saurischians to Sauropoda, to a group on its own. The grade-like hypothesis is the most accepted; however, the relationships between the different taxa are not consistent amongst the proposed scenarios. These inconsistencies have been attributed to missing data and unstable (i.e., poorly preserved) taxa, nevertheless, an extensive comparative cladistic analysis has found that these inconsistencies instead come from the character coding and character selection, plus the strategies on merging data sets. Furthermore, a detailed character analysis using information theory and mathematical topology as an approach for character delineation is explored here to operationalise characters and reduce the potential impact of missing data. This analysis also produced the largest and most comprehensive matrix after the reassessment and operationalisation of every character applied to this group far. Additionally, partition analyses performed on this data set have found consistencies in the interrelationships within non-sauropod Sauropodomorpha and has found strong support for smaller clades such as Plateosauridae, Riojasauridae, Anchisauridae, Massospondylinae and Lufengosarinae. The results of these analyses also highlight a different scenario on how quadrupedality evolved, independently originating twice within the group, and provide a better framework to understand the palaeo-biogeography and diversification rate of the first herbivore radiation of dinosaurs.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Qualification: Ph.D
Title: Reassessment of the evolutionary history of the late Triassic and early Jurassic sauropodomorph dinosaurs through comparative cladistics and the supermatrix approach
Event: UCL (University College London)
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Author 2020. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request.
Keywords: Cladistics, Phylogenetic analysis, Supermatrix, Sauropodomorpha, Dinosauria, Zoology, Anatomy
UCL classification: UCL
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10093308
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