Tooth morphology elucidates shark evolution across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

ABSTRACT: Sharks (Selachimorpha) are iconic marine predators that have survived multiple mass extinctions over geologic time. Their prolific fossil record is represented mainly by isolated shed teeth, which provide the basis for reconstructing deep time diversity changes affecting different selachimorph clades. By contrast, corresponding shifts in shark ecology, as measured through morphological disparity, have received comparatively limited analytical attention. Here, we use a geometric morphometric approach to comprehensively examine tooth morphologies in multiple shark lineages traversing the catastrophic end-Cretaceous mass extinction-this event terminated the Mesozoic Era 66 million years ago. Our results show that selachimorphs maintained virtually static levels of dental disparity in most of

SUBMITTER: Bazzi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8354442 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature