An enigmatic new archosauriform from the Carnian-Norian, Upper Triassic, Ischigualasto Formation of northwestern Argentina

In this contribution we introduce a new Late Triassic archosaur, Incertovenator longicollum gen. et sp. nov., with an unusual combination of character states that are present in certain early avemetatarsalian and pseudosuchian archosaur clades. The holotype consists of a partial postcranial skeleton...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Yáñez, Imanol, Pol, Diego, Leardi, Juan Martín, Alcober, Oscar A., Martínez, Ricardo Néstor
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/213583
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/213583
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:ARCHOSAURIA
ARCHOSAURIFORMES
ARGENTINA
ISCHIGUALASTO
LATE TRIASSIC
OSTEOLOGY
PHYLOGENY
TAXONOMY
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.5
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:In this contribution we introduce a new Late Triassic archosaur, Incertovenator longicollum gen. et sp. nov., with an unusual combination of character states that are present in certain early avemetatarsalian and pseudosuchian archosaur clades. The holotype consists of a partial postcranial skeleton, preserving most of the axial skeleton and displaying a marked anteroposterior elongation in the cervical vertebrae. We include I. longicollum gen. et sp. nov. into one of the most comprehensive early archosaur phylogenetic data sets available, and recover it as either an early diverging avemetatarsalian, closely associated with the clade Aphanosauria and Ornithodira, or as an early diverging loricatan closely related to Mandasuchus tanyauchen in the most parsimonious trees. We further evaluate which alternative phylogenetic positions can I. longicollum gen. et sp. nov. take in the suboptimal trees, and determined which character states support those alternative positions in comparison with those of the unconstrained analysis. The analyses recover the new taxon in three main general phylogenetic placements within Archosauria, as well as one position outside this clade, highlighting widespread morphological evolutionary convergence towards neck elongation in several clades of Triassic archosauriforms.