Redescription of the skull of the Australian flatback sea turtle, Natator depressus, provides new morphological evidence for phylogenetic relationships among sea turtles (Chelonioidea)
| Autor: | Marc E. H. Jones, Ray M Chatterji, Mark N. Hutchinson |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Phylogenetic tree Zoology Biology biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences 03 medical and health sciences Skull 030104 developmental biology medicine.anatomical_structure Sea turtle medicine Animal Science and Zoology Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics |
| Zdroj: | Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 191:1090-1113 |
| ISSN: | 1096-3642 0024-4082 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa071 |
| Popis: | Chelonioidea (sea turtles) are a group where available morphological evidence for crown-group relationships are incongruent with those established using molecular data. However, morphological surveys of crown-group taxa tend to focus on a recurring subset of the extant species. The Australian flatback sea turtle, Natator depressus, is often excluded from comparisons and it is the most poorly known of the seven extant species of Chelonioidea. Previous descriptions of its skull morphology are limited and conflict. Here we describe three skulls of adult N. depressus and re-examine the phylogenetic relationships according to morphological character data. Using X-ray micro Computed Tomography we describe internal structures of the braincase and identify new phylogenetically informative characters not previously reported. Phylogenetic analysis using a Bayesian approach strongly supports a sister-group relationship between Chelonia mydas and N. depressus, a topology that was not supported by previous analyses of morphological data but one that matches the topology supported by analysis of molecular data. Our results highlight the general need to sample the morphological anatomy of crown-group taxa more thoroughly before concluding that morphological and molecular evidence are incongruous. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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