Skull sinuses precluded extinct crocodile relatives from cetacean-style deep diving as they transitioned from land to sea.

Autor:	Young MT; School of GeoSciences, Grant Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FE, UK.; LWL-Museum für Naturkunde, Sentruper Straße 285, Münster 48161, Germany.; School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK., Schwab JA; School of GeoSciences, Grant Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FE, UK.; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK., Dufeau D; College of Osteopathic Medicine, Marian University, Indianapolis, IN, USA., Racicot RA; Department of Messel Research and Mammalogy, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, Senckenberganlage 25, Frankfurt am Main 60325, Germany., Cowgill T; School of GeoSciences, Grant Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FE, UK., Bowman CIW; School of GeoSciences, Grant Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FE, UK., Witmer LM; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA., Herrera Y; CONICET, División Paleontología Vertebrados, Unidades de Investigación Anexo Museo, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, UNLP, La Plata, Argentina., Higgins R; School of GeoSciences, Grant Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FE, UK., Zanno L; Paleontology, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC, USA.; Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, 100 Brooks Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA., Xing X; Centre for Vertebrate Evolutionary Biology, Yunnan University, Kunming 650031, People's Republic of China.; Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, People's Republic of China., Clark J; Department of Biological Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA., Brusatte SL; School of GeoSciences, Grant Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FE, UK.; Department of Natural Sciences, National Museums Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh, UK.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Royal Society open science [R Soc Open Sci] 2024 Oct 30; Vol. 11 (10), pp. 241272. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Oct 30 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI:	10.1098/rsos.241272
Abstrakt:	During major evolutionary transitions, groups develop radically new body plans and radiate into new habitats. A classic example is cetaceans which evolved from terrestrial ancestors to become pelagic swimmers. In doing so, they altered their air-filled sinuses, transitioning some of these spaces to allow for fluctuations in air capacity and storage via soft tissue borders. Other tetrapods independently underwent land-to-sea transitions, but it is unclear if they similarly changed their sinuses. We use computed tomography to study sinus changes in thalattosuchian crocodylomorphs that transformed from land-bound ancestors to become the only known aquatic swimming archosaurs. We find that thalattosuchian braincase sinuses reduced over their transition, similar to cetaceans, but their snout sinuses counterintuitively expanded, distinct from cetaceans, and that both trends were underpinned by high evolutionary rates. We hypothesize that aquatic thalattosuchians were ill suited to deep diving by their snout sinuses, which seem to have remained large to help drain their unusual salt glands. Thus, although convergent in general terms, thalattosuchians and cetaceans were subject to different constraints that shaped their transitions to water. Thalattosuchians attained a stage similar to less pelagic transitional forms in the cetacean lineage (late protocetid-basilosaurid) but did not become further specialized for ocean life. Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests. (© 2024 The Author(s).)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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