An Italian dinosaur Lagerstätte reveals the tempo and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolution
Abstract During the latest Cretaceous, the European Archipelago was characterized by highly fragmented landmasses hosting putative dwarfed, insular dinosaurs, claimed as fossil evidence of the “island rule”. The Villaggio del Pescatore quarry (north-eastern Italy) stands as the most informative loca...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02490-x |
| _version_ | 1830450513502535680 |
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| author | Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza Matteo Fabbri Lorenzo Consorti Marco Muscioni David C. Evans Juan L. Cantalapiedra Federico Fanti |
| author_facet | Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza Matteo Fabbri Lorenzo Consorti Marco Muscioni David C. Evans Juan L. Cantalapiedra Federico Fanti |
| author_sort | Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract During the latest Cretaceous, the European Archipelago was characterized by highly fragmented landmasses hosting putative dwarfed, insular dinosaurs, claimed as fossil evidence of the “island rule”. The Villaggio del Pescatore quarry (north-eastern Italy) stands as the most informative locality within the palaeo-Mediterranean region and represents the first, multi-individual Konservat-Lagerstätte type dinosaur-bearing locality in Italy. The site is here critically re-evaluated as early Campanian in age, thus preceding the final fragmentation stages of the European Archipelago, including all other European localities preserving hypothesized dwarfed taxa. New skeletal remains allowed osteohistological analyses on the hadrosauroid Tethyshadros insularis indicating subadult features in the type specimen whereas a second, herein newly described, larger individual is likely somatically mature. A phylogenetic comparative framework places the body-size of T. insularis in range with other non-hadrosaurid Eurasian hadrosauroids, rejecting any significant evolutionary trend towards miniaturisation in this clade, confuting its ‘pygmy’ status, and providing unmatched data to infer environmentally-driven body-size trends in Mesozoic dinosaurs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T08:16:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-36c9a61a47d744a88cc46eaaf89419f9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T08:16:37Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-36c9a61a47d744a88cc46eaaf89419f92022-12-21T19:10:32ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222021-12-0111111510.1038/s41598-021-02490-xAn Italian dinosaur Lagerstätte reveals the tempo and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolutionAlfio Alessandro Chiarenza0Matteo Fabbri1Lorenzo Consorti2Marco Muscioni3David C. Evans4Juan L. Cantalapiedra5Federico Fanti6Grupo de Ecología Animal, Centro de Investigacion Mariña, Universidade de VigoField Museum of Natural HistoryDepartment of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of TriesteDipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università Di BolognaDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of TorontoGloCEE—Global Change Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de AlcaláDipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università Di BolognaAbstract During the latest Cretaceous, the European Archipelago was characterized by highly fragmented landmasses hosting putative dwarfed, insular dinosaurs, claimed as fossil evidence of the “island rule”. The Villaggio del Pescatore quarry (north-eastern Italy) stands as the most informative locality within the palaeo-Mediterranean region and represents the first, multi-individual Konservat-Lagerstätte type dinosaur-bearing locality in Italy. The site is here critically re-evaluated as early Campanian in age, thus preceding the final fragmentation stages of the European Archipelago, including all other European localities preserving hypothesized dwarfed taxa. New skeletal remains allowed osteohistological analyses on the hadrosauroid Tethyshadros insularis indicating subadult features in the type specimen whereas a second, herein newly described, larger individual is likely somatically mature. A phylogenetic comparative framework places the body-size of T. insularis in range with other non-hadrosaurid Eurasian hadrosauroids, rejecting any significant evolutionary trend towards miniaturisation in this clade, confuting its ‘pygmy’ status, and providing unmatched data to infer environmentally-driven body-size trends in Mesozoic dinosaurs.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02490-x |
| spellingShingle | Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza Matteo Fabbri Lorenzo Consorti Marco Muscioni David C. Evans Juan L. Cantalapiedra Federico Fanti An Italian dinosaur Lagerstätte reveals the tempo and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolution Scientific Reports |
| title | An Italian dinosaur Lagerstätte reveals the tempo and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolution |
| title_full | An Italian dinosaur Lagerstätte reveals the tempo and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolution |
| title_fullStr | An Italian dinosaur Lagerstätte reveals the tempo and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolution |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Italian dinosaur Lagerstätte reveals the tempo and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolution |
| title_short | An Italian dinosaur Lagerstätte reveals the tempo and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolution |
| title_sort | italian dinosaur lagerstatte reveals the tempo and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolution |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02490-x |
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