Washington: Researchers reveal the rapid evolution and radiation of reptiles actually began before the end of the Permian in connection to the steadily increasing temperatures, which drove successive climate changes over 60 million years.
The end-Permian extinctions are important not only because of their magnitude but also because they mark the onset of a new era in the history of the planet when reptiles became the dominant group of vertebrate animals living on land. During the Permian, vertebrate faunas on land were dominated by synapsids, the ancestors of mammals.
After the Permian extinctions, in the Triassic Period (252-200 million years ago), reptiles evolved at rapid rates, creating an explosion of reptile diversity. This expansion was key to the construction of modern ecosystems and many extinct ecosystems. These rapid rates of evolution and diversification were believed by most palaeontologists to be due to the extinction of competitors allowing reptiles to take over new habitats and food resources that several synapsid groups had dominated before their extinction. However, in a new study in Sciences Advances researchers in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University and collaborators reveal the rapid evolution and radiation of reptiles began much earlier, before the end of the Permian, in connection to the steadily increasing global temperatures through a long series of climatic changes that spanned almost 60 million years in the geological record. "We found that these periods of rapid evolution of reptiles were intimately connected to increasing temperatures. Some groups changed really fast and some less fast, but nearly all reptiles were evolving much faster than they ever had before," said lead author postdoctoral fellow Tiago R Simoes. Previous studies on the impacts of these changes have often neglected terrestrial vertebrates due to limited data availability, focusing mostly on the response from marine animals
In this study, Simoes and senior author Professor Stephanie E. Pierce (both at Harvard) worked alongside collaborators Professor Michael Caldwell (University of Alberta, Canada) and Dr. Christian Kammerer (North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences) to examine early amniotes, which represent the forerunners of all modern mammals, reptiles, birds, and their closest extinct relatives, at the initial phase of their evolution. At this point in time the first groups of reptiles and mammal ancestors were splitting from each other and evolving along their own separate evolutionary paths. "Reptiles represent an ideal and rare terrestrial system to study this question as they have a relatively good fossil record and survived a series of climatic crises including the ones leading up to the largest extinction in the history of complex life, the Permian-Triassic mass extinction," said Simoes.
Reptiles were relatively rare during the Permian compared to mammalian ancestors. However, things took a major shift during the Triassic when reptiles underwent a massive explosion in the number of species and morphological variety. This lead to the appearance of most of the major living groups of reptiles (crocodiles, lizards, turtles) and several groups that are now entirely extinct.
The researchers created a dataset based on extensive first-hand data collection of more than 1,000 fossil specimens from 125 species of reptiles, synapsids, and their closest relatives during approximately 140 million years before and after the Permian-Triassic extinction. They then analyzed the data to detect when these species first originated and how fast they were evolving using state-of-the-art analytical techniques such as Bayesian evolutionary analysis, which is also used to understand the evolution of viruses such as SARS-COV-19.
The researchers then combined the new dataset with global temperature data spanning several million years in the geological record to provide a broad overview of the animals' major adaptive response towards climatic shifts. "Our results reveal that periods of fast climatic shifts and global warming are associated with exceptionally high rates of anatomical change in most groups of reptiles as they adapted to new environmental conditions," said Pierce, "and this process started long before the Permian-Triassic extinction, since at least 270 million years ago, indicating that the diversification of reptile body plans was not triggered by the P-T extinction event as previously thought, but in fact started tens of million years before that."
"One reptile lineage, the lepidosaurs, which gave rise to the first lizards and tuataras, veered in the opposite direction of most reptile groups and underwent a phase of very slow rates of change to their overall anatomy," said Simoes, "essentially, their body plans were constrained by natural selection, instead of going rogue and radically changing like most other reptiles at the time." The researchers suggest this is due to pre-adaptations on their body size to better cope with high temperatures.
"The physiology of organisms is really dependent on their body size," said Simoes, "small-bodied reptiles can better exchange heat with their surrounding environment. The first lizards and tuataras were much smaller than other groups of reptiles, not that different from their modern relatives, and so they were better adapted to cope with drastic temperature changes. The much larger ancestors of crocodiles, turtles, and dinosaurs could not lose heat as easily and had to quickly change their bodies in order to adapt to the new environmental conditions."
Simoes, Pierce, and collaborators also mapped out how body size changed across geographical regions during this timeframe. They revealed that climatic pressures on body size were so high there was a maximum body size for reptiles to survive in tropical regions during the lethally hot periods of this time. "Large-sized reptiles basically took two routes to deal with these climate shifts," said Pierce, "they either migrated closer to temperate regions or invaded the aquatic world where they didn't need to worry about overheating because water can absorb heat and maintain its temperature much better than air." "This strong association between rising temperatures in the geological past and a biological response by dramatically different groups of reptiles suggests climate change was a key factor in explaining the origin and the explosion of new reptile body plans during the latest Permian and Triassic," said Simoes. —ANI

Researchers reveal the rapid evolution and radiation of reptiles actually began before the end of the Permian in connection to the steadily increasing temperatures, which drove successive climate changes over 60 million years.

Research Reveals Global Warming Spawned The Age Of Reptiles

New Delhi: The Anti-Evasion Branch of the CGST Commissionerate conducted raids and busted an illegal firecracker manufacturing unit in Faridabad, which was also found to be involved in huge GST evasion, an official said on Friday.
Cash of Rs 58 lakh and a huge cache of firecrackers was seized along with incriminating documents.&nbsp;
The official said that they received information that R.P. Enterprises (GSTIN: 06AAGFR6866B1Z5) having its registered principal place of business at village Baghola, district Palwal, Haryana and additional premises at Sihi Gate, Ballabhgarh, Haryana, was engaged in the purchase and sale of firecrackers without invoices.
Accordingly, the Anti-Evasion Branch conducted simultaneous searches under section 67 (2) of the CGST Act.
The main registered principal place of business at village Baghola was found to be a huge premises, having 21 godowns, located in a very remote inaccessible area.
The official said that they somehow reached the premises with great difficulty on tractors as there was no motorable road and the area was waterlogged.
"We found the said premises were full of firecrackers which were seized. The building was also sealed. Rs 58 lakh cash was also found, that too was seized. They were using Kachchi parchi (normal sale notes) and other documents which indicated that the accused were involved in large-scale evasion of GST," the official said.
The official said that as per order of the apex court and National Green Tribunal, the Haryana government had directed to prohibit the manufacturing, sale and use of all kinds of firecrackers except for green crackers.
"This search operation has once again proved that CBIC and its arms like DRI, DGGI, Anti-Evasion Branches, etc., are very pro-actively preventing not only tax evasion but also protecting the environment of the country. Following this tradition, the Anti-Evasion Branch, CGST Commissionerate Faridabad has very sincerely and diligently discharged its duty as 'Green Warriors' also," the official said.
The officials had to face a tough time as they had to travel by tractors to cross a rivulet full of snakes in order to bust the factory.&nbsp;
—IANS

The Anti-Evasion Branch of the CGST Commissionerate conducted raids and busted an illegal firecracker manufacturing unit in Faridabad, which was also found to be involved in huge GST evasion, an official said on Friday.

 Riding tractor to cross reptile-infested rivulet, CGST team bust illegal firecracker factory in Faridabad

Washington: An international research team examined a rich fossil bed in the renowned Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada's Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, where many 50-foot-long ichthyosaurs (Shonisaurus popularis) lay petrified in stone.
The study offers a plausible explanation as to how at least 37 of these marine reptiles came to meet their ends in the same locality, a question that has vexed paleontologists for more than half a century. The research presents evidence that these ichthyosaurs died at the site in large numbers because they were migrating to this area to give birth for many generations across hundreds of thousands of years.
Today's marine giants -- such as blue and humpback whales -- routinely make massive migrations across the ocean to breed and give birth in waters where predators are scarce, with many congregating year after year along the same stretches of coastline. Now, new research from a team of scientists -- including researchers with the Smithsonian Institution, Vanderbilt University, the Natural History Museum of Utah, the University of Utah, University of Nevada, Reno, University of Edinburgh, University of Texas at Austin, Vrije Universiteit Brussels and University of Oxford -- suggests that nearly 200 million years before giant whales evolved, school bus-sized marine reptiles called ichthyosaurs may have been making similar migrations to breed and give birth together in relative safety.
The findings of the study led by Neil Kelley, Vanderbilt University scientist and former Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History Peter Buck postdoctoral fellow, and co-authored by the museum's curator of fossil marine mammals Nicholas Pyenson, were published in the journal Current Biology.
"We present evidence that these ichthyosaurs died here in large numbers because they were migrating to this area to give birth for many generations across hundreds of thousands of years," Pyenson said. "That means this type of behavior we observe today in whales has been around for more than 200 million years."
Over the years, some paleontologists have proposed that BISP's ichthyosaurs -- predators resembling oversized chunky dolphins that have been adopted as Nevada's state fossil -- died in a mass stranding event such as those that sometimes afflicts modern whales, or that the creatures were poisoned by toxins from a nearby harmful algal bloom. The problem is that these hypotheses lack strong lines of scientific evidence to support them.
To try to solve this prehistoric mystery, the team combined newer paleontological techniques such as 3D scanning and geochemistry with traditional paleontological perseverance by poring over archival materials, photographs, maps, field notes and drawer after drawer of museum collections for shreds of evidence that could be reanalyzed.
Although most well-studied paleontological sites excavate fossils so they can be more closely studied by scientists at research institutions, the main attraction for visitors to the Nevada State Park-run BISP is a barn-like building that houses what researchers call Quarry 2, an array of ichthyosaurs that have been left embedded in the rock for the public to see and appreciate. Quarry 2 has partial skeletons from an estimated seven individual ichthyosaurs that all appear to have died around the same time.
"When I first visited the site in 2014, my first thought was that the best way to study it would be to create a full-color, high-resolution 3D model," Kelley said. "A 3D model would allow us to study the way these large fossils were arranged in relation to one another without losing the ability to go bone by bone."
To do this, Kelley, Pyenson and the research team collaborated with Jon Blundell, a member of the Smithsonian Digitization Program Office's 3D Program team, and Holly Little, a long-time collaborator with Pyenson and the 3D Program's team and currently the informatics manager in the museum's Department of Paleobiology. While Pyenson and Kelley were physically measuring bones and studying the site using traditional paleontological techniques, Little and Blundell used digital cameras and a spherical laser scanner to take hundreds of photographs and millions of point measurements that were then stitched together using specialized software to create a 3D model of the fossil bed. To further home in on what might have befallen these extinct marine reptiles, the team collected tiny samples of the rock surrounding the fossils and performed a series of geochemical tests to look for signs of environmental disturbance. One test measured mercury, which often accompanies large-scale volcanic activity, and found no significantly increased levels. Other tests examined different types of carbon and determined that there was no evidence of sudden increases in organic matter in the marine sediments that would result in a dearth of oxygen in the surrounding waters (though, like whales, the ichthyosaurs breathed air).
These geochemical tests revealed no signs that these ichthyosaurs perished because of some cataclysm that would have seriously disturbed the ecosystem in which they died. Kelley, Pyenson and other colleagues on the research team continued to look beyond Quarry 2 to the surrounding geology and all the fossils that had previously been excavated from the area.
Washington: The geologic evidence indicates that when the ichthyosaurs died, their bones eventually sank to the bottom of the sea, rather than along a shoreline shallow enough to suggest stranding, ruling out another hypothesis. Even more telling, though the area's limestone was chockfull of large adult Shonisaurus specimens, other marine vertebrates were scarce. The bulk of the other fossils at BISP come from small invertebrates such as clams and ammonites (spiral-shelled relatives of today's squid).
"There are so many large, adult skeletons from this one species at this site and almost nothing else," Pyenson said. "There are virtually no remains of things like fish or other marine reptiles for these ichthyosaursto feed on, and there are also no juvenile Shonisaurus skeletons."
The researchers' paleontological dragnet had eliminated some of the potential causes of death and started to provide intriguing clues about the type of ecosystem these marine predators were swimming in, but the evidence still did not clearly point to an alternative explanation.
The research team found a key piece of the puzzle when they discovered tiny ichthyosaur remains among new fossils collected at BISP and hiding within older museum collections. Careful comparison of the bones and teeth using micro-CT X-ray scans at Vanderbilt University revealed that these small bones were in fact embryonic and newborn Shonisaurus.
"Once it became clear that there was nothing for them to eat here, and there were large adult Shonisaurus along with embryos and newborns but no juveniles, we started to seriously consider whether this might have been a birthing ground," Kelley said.
Further analysis of the various strata in which the different clusters of ichthyosaur bones were found also revealed that the ages of the many fossil beds of BISP were separated by at least hundreds of thousands of years, if not millions.
"Finding these different spots with the same species spread across geologic time with the same demographic pattern tells us that this was a preferred habitat that these large oceangoing predators returned to for generations," Pyenson said. "This is a clear ecological signal, we argue, that this was a place that Shonisaurus used to give birth, very similar to today's whales. Now we have evidence that this sort of behavior is 230 million years old."
Kelley said the next step for this line of research is to investigate other ichthyosaur and Shonisaurus sites in North America with these new findings in mind to begin to recreate their ancient world -- perhaps by looking for other breeding sites or for places with greater diversity of other species that could have been rich feeding grounds for this extinct apex predator.
The 3D scans of the site are now available for other researchers to study and for the public to explore via the open-source Smithsonian's Voyager platform, which is developed and maintained by Blundell's team members at the Digitization Program Office. An interactive digital experience about the research team's study, including a 3D model of ichthyosaur sites analyzed, is also available on the Digitization Program Office's website.
"Our work is public," Blundell said. "We aren't just scanning sites and objects and locking them up. We create these scans to open up the collection to other researchers and members of the public who can't physically get to the Smithsonian." —ANI

An international research team examined a rich fossil bed in the renowned Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada's Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, where many 50-foot-long ichthyosaurs (Shonisaurus popularis) lay petrified in stone.

Giant Extinct Marine Reptile Graveyard Was Likely Ancient Birthing Grounds

New Delhi: Customs officials at the Chennai airport have arrested a man for attempting to smuggle 12 pythons which were concealed in his luggage. According to information, the accused was arrested on Tuesday upon his arrival from Bangkok
He was apprehended by the Customs officers due to suspicious behavior.
“Upon inspecting his checked-in luggage, 12 pythons were recovered and subsequently seized under the Customs Act,” an official saud
The accused was produced before a local court which remanded him to a 14-day judicial custody&nbsp;
—IANS

Customs officials at the Chennai airport have arrested a man for attempting to smuggle 12 pythons which were concealed in his luggage

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Tag : Reptile

Research Reveals Global Warming Spawned The Age Of Reptiles

Inam Ansari

The Hawk

Tag : Reptile

Research Reveals Global Warming Spawned The Age Of Reptiles

Inam Ansari

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