Old African fossils provide new evidence for the origin of the American crocodiles
Delfino, Massimo (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)
Iurino, Dawid A. (Università degli Studi di Perugia. Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia)
Mercurio, Bruno (Sapienza Università di Roma. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra)
Piras, Paolo (Center for Evolutionary Ecology)
Rook, Lorenzo (Università di Firenze. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra)
Sardella, Raffaele (Sapienza Università di Roma. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra)

Data:	2020
Resum:	Molecular and morphological phylogenies concur in indicating that the African lineages formerly referred to Crocodylus niloticus are the sister taxon the four Neotropical crocodiles (Crocodylus intermedius, C. moreleti, C. acutus and C. rhombifer), implying a transoceanic dispersal from Africa to America. So far the fossil record did not contribute to identify a possible African forerunner of the Neotropical species but, curiously, the oldest remains referred to the African C. niloticus are Quaternary in age, whereas the oldest American fossils of Crocodylus are older, being dated to the early Pliocene, suggesting that another species could be involved. We re-described, also thanks to CT imaging, the only well-preserved topotipic skull of Crocodylus checchiai Maccagno, 1947 from the late Miocene (Messinian) African site of As Sahabi in Libya. As previously suggested on the basis of late Miocene material from Tanzania, C. checchiai is a valid, diagnosable species. According to our phylogenetic analyses, C. checchiai is related to the Neotropical taxa and could be even located at the base of their radiation, therefore representing the missing link between the African and the American lineages.
Ajuts:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación CGL2016-76431-P
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Palaeontology ; Zoology ; Biogeography
Publicat a:	Scientific reports, Vol. 10 (July 2020) , art. 11127, ISSN 2045-2322

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-68482-5
PMID: 32703957

11 p, 5.7 MB

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