The youngest South American rhynchocephalian, a survivor of the K/Pg extinction

Rhynchocephalian lepidosaurs, though once widespread worldwide, are represented today only by the tuatara (Sphenodon) of New Zealand. After their apparent early Cretaceous extinction in Laurasia, they survived in southern continents. In South America, they are represented by different lineages of La...

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Publicado:	2014
Materias:	Cretaceous/palaeogene boundary Opisthodontia Palaeocene Patagonia Rhynchocephalia cladistics Cretaceous ectothermy extinction Laurentia lizard Paleocene Paleogene taxonomy New Zealand South America
Acceso en línea:	https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_09628452_v281_n1792_p_Apesteguia http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_09628452_v281_n1792_p_Apesteguia
Aporte de:	Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA) de Universidad de Buenos Aires

id	paper:paper_09628452_v281_n1792_p_Apesteguia
record_format	dspace
spelling	paper:paper_09628452_v281_n1792_p_Apesteguia2023-06-08T15:58:07Z The youngest South American rhynchocephalian, a survivor of the K/Pg extinction Cretaceous/palaeogene boundary Opisthodontia Palaeocene Patagonia Rhynchocephalia cladistics Cretaceous ectothermy extinction Laurentia lizard Paleocene Paleogene taxonomy New Zealand South America Rhynchocephalian lepidosaurs, though once widespread worldwide, are represented today only by the tuatara (Sphenodon) of New Zealand. After their apparent early Cretaceous extinction in Laurasia, they survived in southern continents. In South America, they are represented by different lineages of Late Cretaceous eupropalinal forms until their disappearance by the Cretaceous/Palaeogene (K/Pg) boundary. We describe here the only unambiguous Palaeogene rhynchocephalian from South America; this new taxon is a younger species of the otherwise Late Cretaceous genus Kawasphenodon. Phylogenetic analysis confirms the allocation of the genus to the clade Opisthodontia. The new form from the Palaeogene of Central Patagonia is much smaller than Kawasphenodon expectatus from the Late Cretaceous of Northern Patagonia. The new species shows that at least one group of rhynchocephalians not related to the extant Sphenodon survived in South America beyond the K/Pg extinction event. Furthermore, it adds to other trans-K/Pg ectotherm tetrapod taxa, suggesting that the end-Cretaceous extinction affected Patagonia more benignly than the Laurasian landmasses. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. 2014 https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_09628452_v281_n1792_p_Apesteguia http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_09628452_v281_n1792_p_Apesteguia
institution	Universidad de Buenos Aires
institution_str	I-28
repository_str	R-134
collection	Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA)
topic	Cretaceous/palaeogene boundary Opisthodontia Palaeocene Patagonia Rhynchocephalia cladistics Cretaceous ectothermy extinction Laurentia lizard Paleocene Paleogene taxonomy New Zealand South America
spellingShingle	Cretaceous/palaeogene boundary Opisthodontia Palaeocene Patagonia Rhynchocephalia cladistics Cretaceous ectothermy extinction Laurentia lizard Paleocene Paleogene taxonomy New Zealand South America The youngest South American rhynchocephalian, a survivor of the K/Pg extinction
topic_facet	Cretaceous/palaeogene boundary Opisthodontia Palaeocene Patagonia Rhynchocephalia cladistics Cretaceous ectothermy extinction Laurentia lizard Paleocene Paleogene taxonomy New Zealand South America
description	Rhynchocephalian lepidosaurs, though once widespread worldwide, are represented today only by the tuatara (Sphenodon) of New Zealand. After their apparent early Cretaceous extinction in Laurasia, they survived in southern continents. In South America, they are represented by different lineages of Late Cretaceous eupropalinal forms until their disappearance by the Cretaceous/Palaeogene (K/Pg) boundary. We describe here the only unambiguous Palaeogene rhynchocephalian from South America; this new taxon is a younger species of the otherwise Late Cretaceous genus Kawasphenodon. Phylogenetic analysis confirms the allocation of the genus to the clade Opisthodontia. The new form from the Palaeogene of Central Patagonia is much smaller than Kawasphenodon expectatus from the Late Cretaceous of Northern Patagonia. The new species shows that at least one group of rhynchocephalians not related to the extant Sphenodon survived in South America beyond the K/Pg extinction event. Furthermore, it adds to other trans-K/Pg ectotherm tetrapod taxa, suggesting that the end-Cretaceous extinction affected Patagonia more benignly than the Laurasian landmasses. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
title	The youngest South American rhynchocephalian, a survivor of the K/Pg extinction
title_short	The youngest South American rhynchocephalian, a survivor of the K/Pg extinction
title_full	The youngest South American rhynchocephalian, a survivor of the K/Pg extinction
title_fullStr	The youngest South American rhynchocephalian, a survivor of the K/Pg extinction
title_full_unstemmed	The youngest South American rhynchocephalian, a survivor of the K/Pg extinction
title_sort	youngest south american rhynchocephalian, a survivor of the k/pg extinction
publishDate	2014
url	https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_09628452_v281_n1792_p_Apesteguia http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_09628452_v281_n1792_p_Apesteguia
_version_	1768544284648144896

The youngest South American rhynchocephalian, a survivor of the K/Pg extinction

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