[dinosaur] Saturnalia (sauropodomorph) skull from Late Triassic of Brazil (free pdf)

Ben Creisler
[email protected]

A new paper in open access:

Mario Bronzati, Rodrigo T. Müller & Max C. Langer (2019)
Skull remains of the dinosaur Saturnalia tupiniquim (Late Triassic,
Brazil): With comments on the early evolution of sauropodomorph feeding
behaviour.
PLoS ONE 14(9): e0221387.
doi: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__doi.org_10.1371_journal.pone.0221387&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=3sHJsPQ5iypwSvP8AIekt1ENiStr1N3i8F1QvlnSjAo&s=I8fspxEDDLU0YJfraBslRVo-WbACoPLuhHkY9g0qaZw&e= 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__journals.plos.org_plosone_article-3Fid-3D10.1371_journal.pone.0221387&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=3sHJsPQ5iypwSvP8AIekt1ENiStr1N3i8F1QvlnSjAo&s=JDxD4fVruXczIlaPweEwMrr993tst9RsO-8p9D-DWGA&e= 

Free pdf:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__journals.plos.org_plosone_article_file-3Fid-3D10.1371_journal.pone.0221387-26type-3Dprintable&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=3sHJsPQ5iypwSvP8AIekt1ENiStr1N3i8F1QvlnSjAo&s=TBC-5GGXk0jJCCoNzr7DsVMeNzvMuQt08KB-hqcnjNg&e= 


Saturnalia tupiniquim is a sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Late Triassic
(Carnian–c. 233 Ma) Santa Maria Formation of Brazil. Due to its
phylogenetic position and age, it is important for studies focusing on the
early evolution of both dinosaurs and sauropodomorphs. The osteology of
Saturnalia has been described in a series of papers, but its cranial
anatomy remains mostly unknown. Here, we describe the skull bones of one of
its paratypes (only in the type-series to possess such remains) based on CT
Scan data. The newly described elements allowed estimating the cranial
length of Saturnalia and provide additional support for the presence of a
reduced skull (i.e. two thirds of the femoral length) in this taxon, as
typical of later sauropodomorphs. Skull reduction in Saturnalia could be
related to an increased efficiency for predatory feeding behaviour,
allowing fast movements of the head in order to secure small and elusive
prey, a hypothesis also supported by data from its tooth and brain
morphology. A principal co-ordinates analysis of the sauropodomorph jaw
feeding apparatus shows marked shifts in morphospace occupation in
different stages of the first 30 million years of their evolutionary
history. One of these shifts is observed between non-plateosaurian and
plateosaurian sauropodomorphs, suggesting that, despite also having an
omnivorous diet, the feeding behaviour of some early Carnian
sauropodomorphs, such as Saturnalia, was markedly different from that of
later Triassic taxa. A second shift, between Late Triassic and Early
Jurassic taxa, is congruent with a floral turnover hypothesis across the
Triassic-Jurassic boundary.

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