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Strickson, E, Prieto-Márquez, A, Benton, MJ and Stubbs, TL (2016) Dynamics of dental evolution in ornithopod dinosaurs. Scientific Reports, 6. ISSN 2045-2322
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Dynamics of dental evolution in ornithopod dinosaurs.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Ornithopods were key herbivorous dinosaurs in Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems, with a variety of tooth morphologies. Several clades, especially the 'duck-billed' hadrosaurids, became hugely diverse and abundant almost worldwide. Yet their evolutionary dynamics have been disputed, particularly whether they diversified in response to events in plant evolution. Here we focus on their remarkable dietary adaptations, using tooth and jaw characters to examine changes in dental disparity and evolutionary rate. Ornithopods explored different areas of dental morphospace throughout their evolution, showing a long-term expansion. There were four major evolutionary rate increases, the first among basal iguanodontians in the Middle-Late Jurassic, and the three others among the Hadrosauridae, above and below the split of their two major clades, in the middle of the Late Cretaceous. These evolutionary bursts do not correspond to times of plant diversification, including the radiation of the flowering plants, and suggest that dental innovation rather than coevolution with major plant clades was a major driver in ornithopod evolution.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Subjects: | Q Science > QH Natural history Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology Q Science > QK Botany |
| Divisions: | Natural Sciences & Psychology (closed 31 Aug 19) |
| Publisher: | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP |
| Related URLs: | |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Sep 2016 10:59 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Sep 2021 12:34 |
| DOI or ID number: | 10.1038/srep28904 |
| URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/4084 |
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