Article (Scientific journals)
Refining the marine reptile turnover at the Early–Middle Jurassic transition
Fischer, Valentin; Weis, Robert; Thuy, Ben
2021In PeerJ, 9 (e10647), p. 1-31
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Keywords :
Ichthyosauria; Ophthalmosauridae; Plesiosauria; Cryptoclididae; Toarcian; Aalenian; Bajocian; Faunal turnover; Extinction
Abstract :
[en] Even though a handful of long-lived reptilian clades dominated Mesozoic marine ecosystems, several biotic turnovers drastically changed the taxonomic composition of these communities. A seemingly slow paced, within-geological period turnover took place across the Early-Middle Jurassic transition. This turnover saw the demise of early neoichthyosaurians, rhomaleosaurid plesiosaurians and early plesiosauroids in favour of ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurians and cryptoclidid and pliosaurid plesiosaurians, clades that will dominate the Late Jurassic and, for two of them, the entire Early Cretaceous as well. The fossil record of this turnover is however extremely poor, and this change of dominance appears to be spread across the entire middle Toarcian-Bathonian interval. We describe a series of ichthyosaurian and plesiosaurian specimens from successive geological formations in Luxembourg and Belgium that detail the evolution of marine reptile assemblages across the Early-Middle Jurassic transition within a single area, the Belgo-Luxembourgian sub-basin. These fossils reveal the continuing dominance of large rhomaleosaurid plesiosaurians, microcleidid plesiosaurians, and Temnodontosaurus-like ichthyosaurians up to the latest Toarcian, indicating that the structuration of the upper tier of Western Europe marine ecosystems remained essentially constant up to the very end of the Early Jurassic. These fossils also suddenly record ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurians and cryptoclidid plesiosaurians by the early Bajocian. These results from a geographically-restricted area provide a clearer picture of the shape of the marine reptile turnover occurring at the early–Middle Jurassic transition. This event appears restricted to the sole Aalenian stage, reducing the uncertainty of its duration, at least for ichthyosaurians and plesiosaurians, to 4 instead of 14 million years.
Research center :
Geology - GEOLOGY
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Zoology
Author, co-author :
Fischer, Valentin  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géologie > Evolution and diversity dynamics lab
Weis, Robert
Thuy, Ben
Language :
English
Title :
Refining the marine reptile turnover at the Early–Middle Jurassic transition
Publication date :
2021
Journal title :
PeerJ
eISSN :
2167-8359
Publisher :
PeerJ, United States - California
Volume :
9
Issue :
e10647
Pages :
1-31
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 22 February 2021

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