Sonntag, 4. März 2012

New papers on Kyrgyzsaurus, Madygenerpeton, and Longisquama

Alifanov, V. R. and E. N. Kurochkin. 2011..Kyrgyzsaurus bukhanchenkoi gen. et sp. nov., a new reptile from the Triassic of southwestern Kyrgyzstan. Paleontological Journal 45(6):639-647.
[DOI: 10.1134/S0031030111060025] [link]

Description of a reptile fossil with skin preservation discovered in 2006. Comes form the same locality as Sharovipteryx and Longisquama. The authors interpret the specimen as a member of drepanosaurs, a Late Triassic group of archosauromorphs. This paper represents one of the last contributions of the Russian palaeornithologist Evgenii N. Kurochkin who passed away recently.

Buchwitz, M., C. Foth, I. Kogan, and S. Voigt. 2012 in press. On the use of osteoderm features in a phylogenetic approach on the internal relationships of the Chroniosuchia (Tetrapoda: Reptiliomorpha). Palaeontology. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2012.01137.x] [link]

Includes a graphic reconstruction of Madygenerpeton (drawing by Frederik Spindler).

Buchwitz, M. and S. Voigt. 2012 in press. The dorsal appendages of the Triassic reptile Longisquama insignis: reconsideration of a controversial integument type. Paläontologische Zeitschrift.
[DOI: 10.1007/s12542-012-0135-3] [Link]

More thorough description/ graphic documentation compared to Voigt et al.(2009) and considers some aspects of diapsid skin evolution.

2 Kommentare:

220mya hat gesagt…

Fantastic new chroniosuchian paper! Really cool stuff!

...but, will people please stop using the 2004 timescale? Its significantly inaccurate based on current knowledge; their placement of the Carnian-Norian boundary is ~10 million years too young, and the Ladinian-Carnian boundary is at least 8 million years too young. Moreover, this timescale was obsolete as soon as it was published. See papers by Muttoni et al. 2004 (GSA Bulletin), Furin et al. 2006 (Geology), Mundil et al. 2010 (GSL Special Publication), Olsen et al. 2011 (Earth Env. Sci. Trans. Royal Soc. Edinburgh), and Irmis et al. 2011 (EPSL).

Michael BW hat gesagt…

Certainly, if the other scale is ICS standard now... I remember this paper of Mundil et al. (2010) but thought that the results were not yet consensus among stratigraphers.