Ford, David P;
Benson, Roger BJ;
Griffiths, Elizabeth F;
Evans, Susan E;
(2025)
Evidence for clinging arboreality in a Middle Jurassic stem lepidosaur.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
, 292
(2045)
, Article 20250080. 10.1098/rspb.2025.0080.
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Abstract
Lepidosaurs are an ecologically diverse and speciose group with more than 11 000 living species (squamates and the tuatara). Stem lepidosaurs are known from the Early Triassic onwards, but primarily from very incomplete specimens. Therefore, we have little information on their ecological diversity or the ecological context of deep evolutionary divergences of Lepidosauria. Marmoretta oxoniensis, from the Middle Jurassic of the UK, is one of the most completely known candidate stem lepidosaurs. Previous studies proposed that it may have been semi-aquatic, based primarily on its abundance in marginal marine rocks. We show here that Marmoretta was adapted for climbing, based on the post-cranial anatomy of a partial skeleton, visualized using micro-computed tomography (µCT)-in particular, the steep angles of thoracic zygapophyses, ungual phalanx morphology and elongate penultimate manual phalanges that curve distoventrally along their lengths. Linear discriminant analysis of the partial hand, using a training dataset of hand skeleton measurements and habitat use in extant squamates, returns strong evidence for clinging arboreality and Marmoretta clusters among scansorial/arboreal iguanians in manus shape space. Evidence of arboreality in Marmoretta provides the first information about habitat use in a probable stem lepidosaur and illuminates the vertical structure of ecological communities of the mid-Mesozoic.
Type: | Article |
---|---|
Title: | Evidence for clinging arboreality in a Middle Jurassic stem lepidosaur |
Location: | England |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1098/rspb.2025.0080 |
Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.0080 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
Keywords: | Lepidosauromorpha, arboreal, ecomorphology, postcranial anatomy, scansorial, Animals, Fossils, Biological Evolution, X-Ray Microtomography, Reptiles, United Kingdom, Ecosystem, Locomotion |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Cell and Developmental Biology |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10207540 |
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