Rhynchocephalians: The least known South American Lepidosaurs

The history of Rhynchocephalia in South America is rich and complex. Although the Triassic forms were related to the global lineages, including clevosaurs and derived herbivorous forms, along Jurassic new lineages succeeded. These forms are closely related to other endemic Gondwanan species, all pos...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Apesteguía, Sebastián
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/104860
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/104860
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Rhynchocephalia
Gondwana
Sudamerica
Sphenodontia
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.5
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:The history of Rhynchocephalia in South America is rich and complex. Although the Triassic forms were related to the global lineages, including clevosaurs and derived herbivorous forms, along Jurassic new lineages succeeded. These forms are closely related to other endemic Gondwanan species, all positioned southwards from the Central Gondwanan Desert. During the Cretaceous the presence of terrestrial and littoral rhynchocephalians, provided of a very derived dentition and large size, and belonging to at least three different lineages, shows that the clade diversity was still healthy. After K/Pg boundary at least two lineages survived in South America probably until the global cooling event at the Eocene–Oligocene boundary.