Over het archief
Het OWA, het open archief van het Waterbouwkundig Laboratorium heeft tot doel alle vrij toegankelijke onderzoeksresultaten van dit instituut in digitale vorm aan te bieden. Op die manier wil het de zichtbaarheid, verspreiding en gebruik van deze onderzoeksresultaten, alsook de wetenschappelijke communicatie maximaal bevorderen.
Dit archief wordt uitgebouwd en beheerd volgens de principes van de Open Access Movement, en het daaruit ontstane Open Archives Initiative.
Basisinformatie over ‘Open Access to scholarly information'.
| one publication added to basket [355287] |
Global ecomorphological restructuring of dominant marine reptiles prior to the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction
MacLaren, J.A.; Bennion, R.F.; Bardet, N.; Fischer, V. (2022). Global ecomorphological restructuring of dominant marine reptiles prior to the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction. Proc. - Royal Soc., Biol. Sci. 289(1975): 20220585. https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0585
Bijhorende data:
In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. The Royal Society: London. ISSN 0962-8452; e-ISSN 1471-2954, meer
|   |
| Trefwoorden |
|
| Author keywords |
morphometrics, provincialism, megapredator, ecomorphology, Cretaceous |
| Auteurs | | Top |
- MacLaren, J.A., meer
- Bennion, R.F., meer
- Bardet, N.
- Fischer, V., meer
|
|
|
| Abstract |
Mosasaurid squamates were the dominant amniote predators in marine ecosystems during most of the Late Cretaceous. Here, we use a suite of biomechanically rooted, functionally descriptive ratios in a framework adapted from population ecology to investigate how the morphofunctional disparity of mosasaurids evolved prior to the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K/Pg) mass extinction. Our results suggest that taxonomic turnover in mosasaurid community composition from Campanian to Maastrichtian is reflected by a notable global increase in morphofunctional disparity, especially driving the North American record. Ecomorphospace occupation becomes polarized during the late Maastrichtian, with morphofunctional disparity plateauing in the Southern Hemisphere and decreasing in the Northern Hemisphere. We show that these changes are not strongly associated with mosasaurid size, but rather with the functional capacities of their skulls. Our novel approach indicates that mosasaurid morphofunctional disparity was in decline in multiple provincial communities before the K/Pg mass extinction, highlighting region-specific patterns of disparity evolution and the importance of assessing vertebrate extinctions both globally and locally. Ecomorphological differentiation in mosasaurid communities, coupled with declines in other formerly abundant marine reptile groups, indicates widespread restructuring of higher trophic levels in marine food webs was well underway when the K/Pg mass extinction took place. |
IMIS is ontwikkeld en wordt gehost door het VLIZ.
