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DOI 10.1098/rsos.190264
Palaeoepidemiology in extinct vertebrate populations: factors influencing skeletal health in Jurassic marine reptiles
2019-7-26
Pardo Perez, Judith Mariana
;
Kear, Benjamin
;
Maxwell, Erin E.
Palaeoepidemiological studies related to palaeoecology are rare, but have the potential to provide information regarding ecosystem-level characteristics by measuring individual health. In order to assess factors underlying the prevalence of pathologies in large marine vertebrates, we surveyed ichthyosaurs (Mesozoic marine reptiles) from the Posidonienschiefer Formation (Early Jurassic: Toarcian) of southwestern Germany. This Formation provides a relatively large sample from a geologically and geographically restricted interval, making it ideal for generating baseline data for a palaeoepidemiological survey. We examined the influence of taxon, anatomical region, body size, ontogeny and environmental change, as represented by the early Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event, on the prevalence of pathologies, based on a priori ideas of factors influencing population skeletal health. Our results show that the incidence of pathologies is dependent on taxon, with the small-bodied genus Stenopterygius exhibiting fewer skeletal pathologies than other genera. Within Stenopterygius, we detected more pathologies in large adults than in smaller size classes. Stratigraphic horizon, a proxy for palaeoenvironmental change, did not influence the incidence of pathologies in Stenopterygius. The quantification of the occurrence of pathologies within taxa and across guilds is critical to constructing more detailed hypotheses regarding changes in the prevalence of skeletal injury and disease through Earth history.
Scopus© Citations 12 1
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DOI 10.1111/jzo.12517
Ichthyosaurian palaeopathology: evidence of injury and disease in fossil 'fish lizards'
2018-1
Pardo Perez, Judith Mariana
;
Kear, B. P.
;
Gomez, M.
;
Moroni, M.
;
Maxwell, E. E.
The documented record of ichthyosaurian paleopathologies reveals an array of injury-related bone modifications and instances of disease evidenced through multiple clades, skeletal regions and body-size classes from the Middle Triassic to middle Cretaceous. Examples include traumatic injuries, as well as a high incidence of articular diseases, including avascular necrosis. Forelimb pathologies are particularly abundant (65% of total reported), and the glenoid region seems to have been especially prone to articular disease. In contrast, pathologies affecting the vertebral column are comparatively underrepresented (6% of reported pathologies). Also notable is the disproportionate commonality of osteopathologies in ichthyosaurian taxa between 2 and 6m in length (54%), as opposed to demonstrably larger (31%) or smaller bodied (15%) species. Furthermore, osteopathologies are almost exclusively described from skeletally mature individuals, and are best known from taxa of Jurassic age (78%), versus those from the Triassic (15%) or Cretaceous (7%); this likely reflects biases in the ichthyosaurian fossil record through time. Ichthyosaurs evince remarkable similarities in the types of observed skeletal damage relative to other ecologically similar marine amniotes - especially cetaceans and mosasaurid squamates, all of which potentially exhibited equivalent palaeoecological and/or behavioural adaptations for life in aqueous environments. Notably, however, the unusually low frequency of vertebral pathologies in ichthyosaurs is peculiar, and requires further investigation to establish significance.
Scopus© Citations 24 2

Pardo Perez, Judith Mariana

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