Quantitative histological models suggest endothermy in plesiosaurs.

Corinna V Fleischle,Tanja Wintrich,P Martin Sander

doi:10.7717/peerj.4955

Corinna V Fleischle, Tanja Wintrich + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4955

Copy DOI

Abstract

BackgroundPlesiosaurs are marine reptiles that arose in the Late Triassic and survived to the Late Cretaceous. They have a unique and uniform bauplan and are known for their very long neck and hydrofoil-like flippers. Plesiosaurs are among the most successful vertebrate clades in Earth’s history. Based on bone mass decrease and cosmopolitan distribution, both of which affect lifestyle, indications of parental care, and oxygen isotope analyses, evidence for endothermy in plesiosaurs has accumulated. Recent bone histological investigations also provide evidence of fast growth and elevated metabolic rates. However, quantitative estimations of metabolic rates and bone growth rates in plesiosaurs have not been attempted before.MethodsPhylogenetic eigenvector maps is a method for estimating trait values from a predictor variable while taking into account phylogenetic relationships. As predictor variable, this study employs vascular density, measured in bone histological sections of fossil eosauropterygians and extant comparative taxa. We quantified vascular density as primary osteon density, thus, the proportion of vascular area (including lamellar infillings of primary osteons) to total bone area. Our response variables are bone growth rate (expressed as local bone apposition rate) and resting metabolic rate (RMR).ResultsOur models reveal bone growth rates and RMRs for plesiosaurs that are in the range of birds, suggesting that plesiosaurs were endotherm. Even for basal eosauropterygians we estimate values in the range of mammals or higher.DiscussionOur models are influenced by the availability of comparative data, which are lacking for large marine amniotes, potentially skewing our results. However, our statistically robust inference of fast growth and fast metabolism is in accordance with other evidence for plesiosaurian endothermy. Endothermy may explain the success of plesiosaurs consisting in their survival of the end-Triassic extinction event and their global radiation and dispersal.

Highlights

As marine reptiles, plesiosaurs and their aquatic adaptations have aroused interest in many different ways, including locomotion with hydrofoil-like flippers, evolution of a long neck, reproduction, and viviparity (O’Keefe & Chiappe, 2011; How to cite this article Fleischle et al (2018), Quantitative histological models suggest endothermy in plesiosaurs
Material The two predictive models constructed in this study include eight eosauropterygians (Table 1), including pachypleurosaurs (Anarosaurus heterodontus, Neusticosaurus edwarsii), the nothosauroid Nothosaurus sp., the pistosaur Pistosaurus longaevus, and the plesiosaurs Plesiosaurus dolichodirus, Rhaeticosaurus mertensi, Cryptoclidus eurymerus and an indeterminate elasmosaur from Japan, hitherto referred to as Elasmosauridae (Fig. 1)
In the phylogenetic eigenvector maps (PEM) for metabolic rate, the lowest values in sauropterygians were obtained for Nothosaurus (3.1 mL O2 h-1 g-0.67), Neusticosaurus (3.2 mL O2 h-1 g-0.67), and Anarosaurus (4.8 mL O2 h-1 g-0.67)

Summary

Introduction

Plesiosaurs and their aquatic adaptations have aroused interest in many different ways, including locomotion with hydrofoil-like flippers (underwater flight), evolution of a long neck, reproduction, and viviparity (O’Keefe & Chiappe, 2011; How to cite this article Fleischle et al (2018), Quantitative histological models suggest endothermy in plesiosaurs. Plesiosaurs are marine reptiles that arose in the Late Triassic and survived to the Late Cretaceous. They have a unique and uniform bauplan and are known for their very long neck and hydrofoil-like flippers. Quantitative estimations of metabolic rates and bone growth rates in plesiosaurs have not been attempted before. Results: Our models reveal bone growth rates and RMRs for plesiosaurs that are in the range of birds, suggesting that plesiosaurs were endotherm. Endothermy may explain the success of plesiosaurs consisting in their survival of the end-Triassic extinction event and their global radiation and dispersal

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion