ArticleBMC ecology and evolution2023
Rapid neck elongation in Sauropterygia (Reptilia: Diapsida) revealed by a new basal pachypleurosaur from the Lower Triassic of China.
Article in BMC ecology and evolution, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Constraint and Allometric Diversification in a Simplified Neck: Shape Evolution of the Atlas in Hyloidea (Anura).Biology · 2026Article
- Osteology and phylogeny ofPeerJ · 2026Article
- Earliest long-necked sauropterygian Lijiangosaurus yongshengensis and plasticity of vertebral evolution in sauropterygian marine reptiles.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Evolvability in vertebrate segmentation.Seminars in cell & developmental biology · 2025Review
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7 authors.
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Abstract
Neck elongation has appeared independently in several tetrapod groups, including giraffes and sauropod dinosaurs on land, birds and pterosaurs in the air, and sauropterygians (plesiosaurs and relatives) in the oceans. Long necks arose in Early Triassic sauropterygians, but the nature and rate of that elongation has not been documented. Here, we report a new species of pachypleurosaurid sauropterygian, Chusaurus xiangensis gen. et sp. nov., based on two new specimens from the Early Triassic Nanzhang-Yuan'an Fauna in the South China Block. The new species shows key features of its Middle Triassic relatives, but has a relatively short neck, measuring 0.48 of the trunk length, compared to > 0.8 from the Middle Triassic onwards. Comparative phylogenetic analysis shows that neck elongation occurred rapidly in all Triassic eosauropterygian lineages, probably driven by feeding pressure in a time of rapid re-establishment of new kinds of marine ecosystems.
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