Salt glands in the Jurassic metriorhynchid <Emphasis Type="Italic">Geosaurus</Emphasis>: implications for the evolution of osmoregulation in Mesozoic marine crocodyliforms |
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Authors: | Marta Fernández Zulma Gasparini |
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Institution: | (1) Departamento Paleontología Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, 1900 La Plata, Argentina |
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Abstract: | The presence of salt-excreting glands in extinct marine sauropsids has been long suspected based on skull morphology. Previously,
we described for the first time the natural casts of salt-excreting glands in the head of the Jurassic metriorhynchid crocodyliform
Geosaurus araucanensis from the Tithonian of the Vaca Muerta Formation in the Neuquén Basin (Argentina). In the present study, salt-excreting glands
are identified in three new individuals (adult, a sub-adult and a juvenile) referable to the same species. New material provides
significant information on the salt glands form and function and permit integration of evolutionary scenarios proposed on
a physiological basis in extant taxa with evidence from the fossil record. G. araucanensis represents an advanced stage of the basic physiological model to marine adaptations in reptiles. G. araucanensis salt glands were hypertrophied. On this basis, it can be hypothesized that these glands had a high excretory capability.
This stage implies that G. araucanensis (like extant pelagic reptiles, e.g. cheloniids) could have maintained constant plasma osmolality even when seawater or osmoconforming
prey were ingested. A gradual model of marine adaptation in crocodyliforms based on physiology (freshwater to coastal/estuarine
to estuarine /marine to pelagic life) is congruent with the phylogeny of crocodyliforms based on skeletal morphology. The
fossil record suggests that the stage of marine pelagic adaptation was achieved by the Early Middle Jurassic. Salt gland size
in the juvenile suggests that juveniles were, like adults, pelagic. |
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Keywords: | Geosaurus araucanensis Jurassic Salt gland |
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