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A new genus of small polycotylid plesiosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of the Western Interior Seaway and a clarification of the genus Dolichorhynchops by Robert O. Clark; F. Robin O'Keefe; Sara E. Slack is a Earth and Planetary Sciences article available to read on EtoBox.

What is A new genus of small polycotylid plesiosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of the Western Interior Seaway and a clarification of the genus Dolichorhynchops about?

Polycotylids are plesiosaurian marine reptiles that evolved during the Early Cretaceous and radiated into multiple genera during the Late Cretaceous. Here we describe a small new polycotyline polycotylid, Unktaheela specta, gen. et sp. nov., from the Campanian of the Western Interior Seaway in North America. Because its specimens bear a host of features indicating they represent adults, Unktaheela is the smallest known adult polycotylid. Diagnostic features of the orbital region include a large orbit, a supraorbital ledge over the orbit's anterodorsal margin, and a broad supraorbital ridge bordering the orbit's posterodorsal rim. Other autapomorphies include an unusually short postorbital region, a uniquely wide occiput, an autapomorphic parasphenoid, unusually wide neural spines, a distinctive pubis morphology, and propodials more convex ventrally than dorsally. A new phylogenetic analysis yields a more stable polycotyline phylogeny and recovers a well-supported clade of derived polycotylines, Dolichorhynchia, clade nov. We find Dolichorhynchops herschelensis and Dolichorhynchops osborni to be united by J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f synapomorphies not shared with other polycotyli

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Author

Robert O. Clark; F. Robin O'Keefe; Sara E. Slack

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Published

2024

Language

EN

Field

Earth and Planetary Sciences (Physical Sciences)