Nuevos datos sobre la neuroanatomía de Diplocynodon tormis en el XX Annual Meeting de la EAVP

Miembros del GBE de la UNED, en colaboración con el Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont y la Universidad de Masaryk (República Checa) han presentado durante el vigésimo encuentro de la EAVP el trabajo titulado “New data on the neuroanatomy of Diplocynodon tormis (Crocodylia) from the Duero Basin (Iberian Peninsula, Spain)”, en el que se obtuvieron las reconstrucciones tridimensionales de las cavidades intracraneanas de varios ejemplares del aligatoroideo basal Diplocynodon tormis, y se compararon con las de otras especies de eusuquios. También se utilizaron estas reconstrucciones tridimensionales para estimar las capacidades neurosensoriales de estos animales, que se asemejan a los de otros aligatoroideos actuales. A continuación el resumen del trabajo:

Inner skull cavities have been overlooked in the descriptions of most fossil crocodylians until recent years. Diplocynodon, an extinct small alligatoroid that lived in Europe from the Paleocene to the Middle Miocene, is no exception to this. In order to partially fill this gap, we studied the inner cavities of the holotype of Diplocynodon tormis, recovered from Teso de la Flecha site (middle Eocene, Salamanca, Spain). The specimen is an underformed, almost complete skull with the attached jaw. Only some bones of the posterior areaof the skull are missing. The fossil was scanned using a medical CT scanner. The derived 3D model includes the paranasal air sinuses, in association with the nasal cavity,the maxillary and mandibular branches of the trigeminal nerve,the dorsal area of the forebrain and the intertympanic diverticula. These 3D reconstructions can be morphologically compared with those of members from both extant and extinct Alligatoridae and Crocodyloidea available in the literature. Our results concur with the previously-observed conservativeness of the inner cavities of crocodylians and therefore only minor morphological differences can be ascertained. The inner skull cavities of Diplocynodon tormis are more similar in shape and sensorial capabilities to alligatoroids than to crocodyloids. Further studies including other basal Alligatoroidea will be required to better understand the morphological patterns that have been relevant during the evolution of the inner skull cavities.

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Más información:

• Referencia: Serrano-Martínez, A., Luján, À.H., García-Pérez, A., Fortuny, J. 2023. New data on the neuroanatomy of Diplocynodon tormis (Crocodylia) from the Duero Basin (Iberian Peninsula, Spain). In: Alba, D.M., Marigó, J., Nacarino-Meneses, C., Villa, A. (Eds.), Book of Abstracts of the 20th Annual Conference of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists, 26th June– 1st July 2023. Palaeovertebrata, Special Volume 1-2023: 22. DOI: 10.18563/pv.eavp2023 (p. 250).