High morphological disparity in a bizarre Paleocene fauna of predatory freshwater reptiles.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The consequences of the K-Pg mass extinction are reflected across present biodiversity, but many faunas that appeared immediately after the extinction event were very different from current ones. Choristodera is a clade of reptiles of uncertain phylogenetic placement that have an extremely poor fossil record throughout their 150-million-year history. Yet, choristoderes survived the K-Pg event and persisted until the Miocene.

Results

I describe the skulls and skeletons of two new choristoderes from a single Paleocene ecosystem in western North America that reveal the hidden Cenozoic diversity of this reptile clade. Despite their similar size, the new species deviate dramatically in morphology. Kosmodraco magnicornis gen. et sp. nov. possesses an extremely short sno

SUBMITTER: Brownstein CD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8935759 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature