Reconstructing the diversity of early terrestrial herbivorous tetrapods by Pearson, MR, Benson, R, Upchurch, P, Fröbisch, J, Kammerer, C

“…Terrestrial herbivorous tetrapods first appear in the fossil record during the Late Carboniferous (306.5. …”

Developmental mechanisms of macroevolutionary change in the tetrapod axis: a case study of Sauropterygia by Soul, L, Benson, R

“…Using phylogenetic comparative methods, we demonstrate that somitogenesis and homeotic effects evolved in a co-ordinated way among sauropterygians, contrasting with the wider pattern in tetrapods, in which somitogenetic and homeotic shifts are uncorrelated. …”

Uncovering the diversification history of marine tetrapods: Ecology influences the effect of geological sampling biases by Benson, R, Butler, R

“…In contrast, our view of open ocean tetrapod diversity is strongly distorted by temporal heterogeneity in fossil record sampling, and has little relationship with continental flooding. …”

Biology, not environment, drives major patterns in maximum tetrapod body size through time. by Sookias, R, Benson, R, Butler, R

“…Abiotic and biological factors have been hypothesized as controlling maximum body size of tetrapods and other animals through geological time. …”

Mesozoic marine tetrapod diversity: mass extinctions and temporal heterogeneity in geological megabiases affecting vertebrates. by Benson, R, Butler, R, Lindgren, J, Smith, A

“…Consideration of sampling biases allows re-evaluation of proposed mass extinction events. Marine tetrapod diversity declined during the Carnian or Norian. …”

Cretaceous tetrapod fossil record sampling and faunal turnover: Implications for biogeography and the rise of modern clades by Benson, R, Mannion, P, Butler, R, Upchurch, P, Goswami, A, Evans, SE

“…However, the absence of strong statistical relationships between tetrapod sampling proxies from different continental areas suggests that there is no unified 'global' sampling signal for terrestrial tetrapods. …”

Evolutionary rates of mid-Permian tetrapods from South Africa and the role of temporal resolution in turnover reconstruction by Day, M, Benson, R, Kammerer, C, Rubidge, B

Diversity trends in the establishment of terrestrial vertebrate ecosystems: Interactions between spatial and temporal sampling biases by Benson, R, Upchurch, P

“…The diversifi cation and establishment of complex trophic structure among terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods) and three hypothesized mass extinctions occurred in the Permian (299.0-252.3 Ma), during a predominantly icehouse global climate regime. …”

High diversity, low disparity and small body size in plesiosaurs (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Triassic-Jurassic boundary by Benson, R, Evans, M, Druckenmiller, P

“…Invasion of the open ocean by tetrapods represents a major evolutionary transition that occurred independently in cetaceans, mosasauroids, chelonioids (sea turtles), ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. …”

A giant dinosaur from the earliest Jurassic of South Africa and the transition to quadrupedality in early sauropodomorphs by McPhee, B, Benson, R, Botha-Brink, J, Bordy, E, Choiniere, J

“…We use data from this new taxon and a discriminant analysis of tetrapod limb measurements to study postural evolution in sauropodomorphs. …”

Pterosaur diversity: Untangling the influence of sampling biases, Lagerstätten, and genuine biodiversity signals by Butler, R, Benson, R, Barrett, P

“…Here, we reanalyse pterosaur species-richness through time, and make statistical comparisons to proxies for pterosaur fossil record sampling and 'global' terrestrial tetrapod sampling, using several approaches including generalised least-squares multiple regression models. …”

Controlling for the species-area effect supports constrained long-term Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrate diversification by Close, R, Benson, R, Upchurch, P, Butler, R

“…This obscures answers to key questions, such as how tetrapods attained their tremendous extant diversity. …”

Cranial anatomy of Thalassiodracon hawkinsii (Reptilia, Plesiosauria) from the Early Jurassic of Somerset, United Kingdom by Benson, R, Bates, K, Johnson, MR, Withers, P

“…This limits our understanding of the diversification of one of the most successful clades of secondarily aquatic tetrapods. Here we provide a robust diagnosis of Thalassiodracon hawkinsii from the Pre-planorbis Beds (Triassic-Jurassic boundary interval) of the United Kingdom, and suggest that at least two other, previously unrecognized plesiosaurians are present in the same deposits. …”

A quantitative method for inferring locomotory shifts in amniotes during ontogeny, its application to dinosaurs and its bearing on the evolution of posture by Chapelle, K, Benson, R, Stiegler, J, Otero, A, Zhao, Q, Choiniere, J

“…We extend a quantitative method for reliably inferring posture in tetrapods to the study of ontogenetic postural transitions using measurements of proportional limb robusticity. …”

Plasticity and convergence in the evolution of short-necked plesiosaurs by Fischer, V, Benson, R, Zverkov, N, Soul, L, Arkhangelsky, M, Lambert, O, Stenshin, I, Uspensky, G, Druckenmiller, P

“…Plesiosaurs were the longest-surviving group of secondarily marine tetrapods, comparable in diversity to today's cetaceans. …”

Middle Jurassic fossils document an early stage in salamander evolution by Jones, MEH, Benson, R, Skutschas, P, Hill, L, Panciroli, E, Schmitt, A, Walsh, S, Evans, SE

“…Salamanders are an important group of living amphibians and model organisms for understanding locomotion, development, regeneration, feeding, and toxicity in tetrapods. However, their origin and early radiation remain poorly understood, with early fossil stem-salamanders so far represented by larval or incompletely known taxa. …”

Virtual reconstruction of the endocranial anatomy of the early Jurassic marine crocodylomorph Pelagosaurus typus (Thalattosuchia) by Pierce, S, Williams, M, Benson, R

“…Nevertheless, such data have significance for two reasons: (1) thalattosuchians represent an important data point regarding adaptation to marine life in tetrapods; and (2) as early-diverging members of the crocodylian stem-lineage, thalattosuchians provide information on the evolutionary assembly of the brain and other endocranial structures in crocodylomorphs. …”

Air-filled postcranial bones in theropod dinosaurs: physiological implications and the 'reptile'-bird transition. by Benson, R, Butler, R, Carrano, M, O'Connor, P

“…Pneumatic (air-filled) postcranial bones are unique to birds among extant tetrapods. Unambiguous skeletal correlates of postcranial pneumaticity first appeared in the Late Triassic (approximately 210 million years ago), when they evolved independently in several groups of bird-line archosaurs (ornithodirans). …”