Matthew Carrano
Smithsonian Institution, Paleobiology, Department Member
[摘要]: 正Counts of species in major ecological categories have been used by mammalian palaeoecologists to reconstruct Cenozoic habitats and environments. For example, in the Recent there are more mammalian herbivores in savannas than in... more
[摘要]: 正Counts of species in major ecological categories have been used by mammalian palaeoecologists to reconstruct Cenozoic habitats and environments. For example, in the Recent there are more mammalian herbivores in savannas than in rain forests, so fossil communities with many herbivores are assumed to be similar to savannas. Our goal was to show whether this approach works for (1) entire amniote communities in (2) the Cretaceous as well as the Cenozoic. If it
Abstract: The Cretaceous dinosaur fauna of Indo-Pakistan has remained poorly understood because of a lack of asso-ciated and articulated remains, proliferation of named spe-cies, and an incomplete understanding of the dinosaur clades... more
Abstract: The Cretaceous dinosaur fauna of Indo-Pakistan has remained poorly understood because of a lack of asso-ciated and articulated remains, proliferation of named spe-cies, and an incomplete understanding of the dinosaur clades present (e.g. abelisaurid theropods; titanosaur sauro-pods). Continued work on existing collections, and new discoveries of dinosaur material from India, Pakistan and elsewhere in Gondwana, has begun to resolve the composi-tion and affinities of Indo-Pakistani dinosaurs. Here, we provide archival evidence that documents associations between postcranial remains of a sauropod collected from Chhota Simla, India by C. A. Matley in the 1930s and later described as ‘Titanosaurus sp. ’ This partial skeleton, which represents only the fifth such documented association from Indo-Pakistan, is referable to Jainosaurus cf. septentrionalis and provides a fuller understanding of its anatomy and phylogenetic affinities.
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Dinosaurs dominated Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems globally. However, whereas a pole-to-pole geographic distribution characterized ornithischians and theropods, sauropods were restricted to lower latitudes. Here, we evaluate the role of... more
Dinosaurs dominated Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems globally. However, whereas a pole-to-pole geographic distribution characterized ornithischians and theropods, sauropods were restricted to lower latitudes. Here, we evaluate the role of climate in shaping these biogeographic patterns through the Jurassic-Cretaceous (201-66 mya), combining dinosaur fossil occurrences, past climate data from Earth System models, and habitat suitability modeling. Results show that, uniquely among dinosaurs, sauropods occupied climatic niches characterized by high temperatures and strongly bounded by minimum cold temperatures. This constrained the distribution and dispersal pathways of sauropods to tropical areas, excluding them from latitudinal extremes, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. The greater availability of suitable habitat in the southern continents, particularly in the Late Cretaceous, might be key to explaining the high diversity of sauropods there, relative to northern landmasses. Given that ornithischians and theropods show a flattened or bimodal latitudinal biodiversity gradient, with peaks at higher latitudes, the closer correspondence of sauropods to a subtropical concentration could hint at fundamental thermophysiological differences to the other two clades.
Research Interests: Climate Change, Ecology, Biogeography, Dinosaur Paleontology, Ecological Niche Modelling, and 12 moreMedicine, Ecological Modelling, Historical Biogeography, Biological Sciences, Sauropodomorphs, Dinosauria, Dinosaurs, Sauropods, Sauropoda, Elsevier, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
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Research Interests: Macroevolution, Biology, Biodiversity, Vertebrate Paleontology, Medicine, and 15 morePalaeontology, Mass extinctions, Biological Sciences, Global change, Dinosaurs, global Climate change, Fossils, Animals, Extinction, Mass Extinction, Extinctions, Chicxulub, End Cretaceous Mass extinction, Deccan Volcanic Province, and Deccan Traps
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Phytosaurs were a widespread clade of Triassic predatory archosauriforms whose skull anatomy is well known, but whose paleobiology is underexplored. Here we report on a well-preserved specimen from Adamanian (early–mid-Norian) strata in... more
Phytosaurs were a widespread clade of Triassic predatory archosauriforms whose skull anatomy is well known, but whose paleobiology is underexplored. Here we report on a well-preserved specimen from Adamanian (early–mid-Norian) strata in Arizona that includes not only the skull and lower jaws but much of the postcranial skeleton, which exhibits extensive evidence of pathologies. This specimen has a complex taxonomic history, and we verify its referral to Smilosuchus gregorii based on multiple cranial characters. The shafts of eight limb bones preserve extensive exostoses—more paleopathological elements than in any other Triassic archosauromorph. These exostoses are often centered on cavitations reminiscent of draining tracts. Extensive, irregular, proliferative lesions have completely engulfed the left deltopectoral crest and thoroughly altered the architecture of both femora. The animal’s presumed low metabolic rate would have allowed several months of lesion progression before it d...
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Excluding the Triassic forms, carnosaurs in the broad or narrow sense have always been considered to be a group of theropods because they are only slightly different from them in fundamental features associated with large body size and a... more
Excluding the Triassic forms, carnosaurs in the broad or narrow sense have always been considered to be a group of theropods because they are only slightly different from them in fundamental features associated with large body size and a predatory lifestyle. The Late Triassic genera, such as Teratosaurus and Sinosaurus [33], were assigned to these on the basis of extremely meager material and without sufficient justification. This assignment has subsequently been rejected by most authors [13, 16, 17, 24, 25]. Huene [23] suggested that, along with the Sauropoda and Prosauropoda, the carnosaurs form a natural group Pachypodosauria, within which they are thought to be direct descendants of the prosauropods (the carnosaurs proceed directly from Teratosaurus through Magnosaurus). Studies of abundant cranial material (which actually belongs to Sellosaurus gracilis Huene) gave reason to think that the first species had been a prosauropod, whereas typical material (maxilla, ischium) belong ...
Original English Abstract. — This study is based on two populations of ancient Egyptian mummified cats. One of them is from a grave of the Bubasteion cliff of Saqqarah, and the other one is from Balat, in the Dakhleh oasis in Upper Egypt.... more
Original English Abstract. — This study is based on two populations of ancient Egyptian mummified cats. One of them is from a grave of the Bubasteion cliff of Saqqarah, and the other one is from Balat, in the Dakhleh oasis in Upper Egypt. Both are dated from the Later Epoch. Their average cranial index fits between that of the Recent domestic cat, F. catus , and that of the wild Libyan desert cat, F. libyca, which appears to be the ancestor of this lineage. The Turkestan steppe cat, F. ornata, the cranial index of which is closer to that of F. catus than that of other species, cannot be the ancestor of the Egyptian domestic cat.
Hadrosaur dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae) were abundant in Late Cretaceous terrestrial environments of North America and Asia. Their derived dental and postcranial specializations for herbivory have led to the suggestion that... more
Hadrosaur dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae) were abundant in Late Cretaceous terrestrial environments of North America and Asia. Their derived dental and postcranial specializations for herbivory have led to the suggestion that these dinosaurs were analogous to modem ungulates in lifestyle. Ungulates display a suite of morphological features that are correlated with diet, habitat preference, and sexual dimorphism. In this paper we examine several of these same features in hadrosaurs in order to determine whether they display similar patterns under multivariate analysis. Initial results confirm the resemblances between hadrosaurs and ungulates but suggest that missing data may considerably affect the outcomes of statistical analyses. Using the hadrosaur dataset as a template, we artificially degrade the (previously complete) ungulate datasets and perform the same analyses. Results are consistent with earlier results and provide an opportunity to assess the impact of missing dat...
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The bones of large dinosaurian reptiles described in this work were brought to me by my good friend, Mr. Dr. Félix Salètes, primary physician for the Madagascar expedition, from the environs of Maevarana, where he was charged with... more
The bones of large dinosaurian reptiles described in this work were brought to me by my good friend, Mr. Dr. Félix Salètes, primary physician for the Madagascar expedition, from the environs of Maevarana, where he was charged with installing a provisional hospital. This locality is situated on the right bank of the eastern arm of the Betsiboka, 46 kilometers south of Majunga, on the northwest coast of the island of Madagascar. Not having the time to occupy himself with paleontological studies, Dr. Salètes charged one of his auxiliary agents, Mr. Landillon, company sergeant-major of the marines, with researching the fossils in the environs of the Maevarana post. Thanks to the zeal and activity of Mr. Landillon, who was not afraid to gravely expose his health in these researches, I have been able to receive the precious bones of terrestrial reptiles that are the object of this note, along with an important series of fossil marine shells. I eagerly seize the opportunity here to thank M...
The presence of theropods in the Upper Cretaceous of Madagascar was noted around 1896 by DEPÉRET, based on teeth that he likened to similar teeth from India, making from the group a new spceies, Megalosaurus crenatissimus. Some other... more
The presence of theropods in the Upper Cretaceous of Madagascar was noted around 1896 by DEPÉRET, based on teeth that he likened to similar teeth from India, making from the group a new spceies, Megalosaurus crenatissimus. Some other remains, notably an ungual phalanx and vertebrae, were attributed to the same animal. No bones belonging to the head have been published until now, and the portion of mandible that will be described is the first for Madagascar1. It is a right dentary. I will recall briefly here the circumstances of its discovery. Found, while excavating the sandstones to collect yams, by a native of the country who was naturally entirely unaware of its importance, this dentary, complete and intact in the locality, was broken and fractured by this man. Happily, at the time of my paleontological survey carried a month later, supported with teeth, he saw these teeth and understood at once the interest of his lucky find. A visit to the place, along with subsequent excavatio...
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The Cretaceous dinosaur fauna of Indo-Pakistan has remained poorly understood because of a lack of associated and articulated remains, proliferation of named species, and an incomplete understanding of the dinosaur clades present (e.g.... more
The Cretaceous dinosaur fauna of Indo-Pakistan has remained poorly understood because of a lack of associated and articulated remains, proliferation of named species, and an incomplete understanding of the dinosaur clades present (e.g. abelisaurid theropods; titanosaur sauropods). Continued work on existing collections, and new discoveries of dinosaur material from India, Pakistan and elsewhere in Gondwana, has begun to resolve the composition and affinities of Indo-Pakistani dinosaurs. Here, we provide archival evidence that documents associations between postcranial remains of a sauropod collected from Chhota Simla, India by C. A. Matley in the 1930s and later described as ‘
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Research Interests: Geology and Geophysics
Two major ichnotypes of sauropod trackways have been described: “narrow-gauge,” in which both manus and pes prints approach or intersect the trackway midline, and “wide-gauge,” in which these prints are well apart from the midline. This... more
Two major ichnotypes of sauropod trackways have been described: “narrow-gauge,” in which both manus and pes prints approach or intersect the trackway midline, and “wide-gauge,” in which these prints are well apart from the midline. This gauge disparity could be the result of differences in behavior, body size, or morphology between the respective trackmakers. However, the biomechanics of locomotion in large terrestrial vertebrates suggest that sauropods were probably restricted in locomotor behavior, and the lack of systematic size differences between footprint gauges argues against body-size-related influences. We argue that skeletal morphology is responsible for gauge differences and integrate data from locomotor biomechanics and systematics with the track record to predict the hindlimb morphology of wide-gauge trackmakers. Broader foot stances in large, graviportal animals entail predictable mechanical consequences and hindlimb modifications. These could include outwardly angled ...
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Analyses of non-avian dinosaur locomotion have been hampered by the lack of an appropriate locomotor analog among extant taxa. Birds, though members of the clade Dinosauria, have undergone significant modifications in hindlimb osteology... more
Analyses of non-avian dinosaur locomotion have been hampered by the lack of an appropriate locomotor analog among extant taxa. Birds, though members of the clade Dinosauria, have undergone significant modifications in hindlimb osteology and musculature. These changes have resulted in a uniquely developed system of limb kinematics (involving a more horizontal femoral posture and knee-dominated limb motion), which precludes the direct use of extant birds as models for non-avian dinosaur locomotion. Analyses of locomotor data from extant birds and mammals suggest a causal link between general hindlimb kinematics, bone strains, and limb bone morphology among these taxa. A model is proposed that relates the amount of torsional loading in femora to bone orientation, such that torsion is maximal in horizontal femora and minimal in vertical femora. Since bone safety factors are lower for torsional shear strains than for longitudinal axial strains, an increase in torsion can potentially affe...
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How did evolution generate the extraordinary diversity of vertebrates on land? Zero species are known prior to ~380 million years ago, and more than 30,000 are present today. An expansionist model suggests this was achieved by large and... more
How did evolution generate the extraordinary diversity of vertebrates on land? Zero species are known prior to ~380 million years ago, and more than 30,000 are present today. An expansionist model suggests this was achieved by large and unbounded increases, leading to substantially greater diversity in the present than at any time in the geological past. This model contrasts starkly with empirical support for constrained diversification in marine animals, suggesting different macroevolutionary processes on land and in the sea. We quantify patterns of vertebrate standing diversity on land during the Mesozoic-early Paleogene interval, applying sample-standardization to a global fossil dataset containing 27,260 occurrences of 4,898 non-marine tetrapod species. Our results show a highly stable pattern of Mesozoic tetrapod diversity at regional and local levels, underpinned by a weakly positive, but near-zero, long-term net diversification rate over 190 million years. Species diversity o...
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Fossils provide the principal basis for temporal calibrations, which are critical to the accuracy of divergence dating analyses. Translating fossil data into minimum and maximum bounds for calibrations is the most important, and often... more
Fossils provide the principal basis for temporal calibrations, which are critical to the accuracy of divergence dating analyses. Translating fossil data into minimum and maximum bounds for calibrations is the most important, and often least appreciated, step of divergence dating. Properly justified calibrations require the synthesis of phylogenetic, paleontological, and geological evidence and can be difficult for non-specialists to formulate. The dynamic nature of the fossil record (e.g., new discoveries, taxonomic revisions, updates of global or local stratigraphy) requires that calibration data be updated continually lest they become obsolete. Here, we announce the Fossil Calibration Database (http://fossilcalibrations.org), a new open-access resource providing vetted fossil calibrations to the scientific community. Calibrations accessioned into this database are based on individual fossil specimens and follow best practices for phylogenetic justification and geochronological con...
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—Fossils provide the principal basis for temporal calibrations, which are critical to the accuracy of divergence dating analyses. Translating fossil data into minimum and maximum bounds for calibrations is the most important—often least... more
—Fossils provide the principal basis for temporal calibrations, which are critical to the accuracy of divergence dating analyses. Translating fossil data into minimum and maximum bounds for calibrations is the most important—often least appreciated—step of divergence dating. Properly justified calibrations require the synthesis of phylogenetic, paleontological, and geological evidence and can be difficult for nonspecialists to formulate. The dynamic nature of the fossil record (e.g., new discoveries, taxonomic revisions, updates of global or local stratigraphy) requires that calibration data be updated continually lest they become obsolete. Here, we announce the Fossil Calibration Database (http://fossilcalibrations.org), a new open-access resource providing vetted fossil calibrations to the scientific community. Calibrations accessioned into this database are based on individual fossil specimens and follow best practices for phylogenetic justification and geochronological constraint. The associated Fossil Calibration Series, a calibration-themed publication series at Palaeontologia Electronica, will serve as a key pipeline for peer-reviewed calibrations to enter the database. [Calibration; divergence dating; fossil.]
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Data, whether images, measurements, counts, occurrences, or character codings, are a cornerstone of vertebrate paleontology. Every published paper, master’s thesis, and doctoral dissertation relies on these data to document patterns and... more
Data, whether images, measurements, counts, occurrences, or character codings, are a cornerstone of vertebrate
paleontology. Every published paper, master’s thesis, and doctoral dissertation relies on these data to document patterns
and processes in evolution, ecology, taphonomy, geography, geologic time, and functional morphology, to name just a few. In
turn, the vertebrate paleontology community relies on published data in order to reproduce and verify others’ work, as well
as to expand upon published analyses in new ways without having to reconstitute data sets that have been used by earlier
authors and to accurately preserve data for future generations of researchers. Here, we review several databases that are of
interest to vertebrate paleontologists and strongly advocate for more deposition of basic research data in publicly accessible
databases by vertebrate paleontologists.
paleontology. Every published paper, master’s thesis, and doctoral dissertation relies on these data to document patterns
and processes in evolution, ecology, taphonomy, geography, geologic time, and functional morphology, to name just a few. In
turn, the vertebrate paleontology community relies on published data in order to reproduce and verify others’ work, as well
as to expand upon published analyses in new ways without having to reconstitute data sets that have been used by earlier
authors and to accurately preserve data for future generations of researchers. Here, we review several databases that are of
interest to vertebrate paleontologists and strongly advocate for more deposition of basic research data in publicly accessible
databases by vertebrate paleontologists.