Sails at the water: ecological convergence between sphenacodontids and spinosaurids?
Budy Trzcińskie 12, 96-115 Nowy Kawęczyn, Poland
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Ecology, Evolutionary Studies, Paleontology, Zoology
- Keywords
- synapsids, diapsids, piscivory, neural spines, thermoregulation, convergence
- Copyright
- © 2017 Mazurek
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2017. Sails at the water: ecological convergence between sphenacodontids and spinosaurids? PeerJ Preprints 5:e2917v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2917v1
Abstract
Spinosaurids (Diapsida: Spinosauridae) and sphenacodontids (Synapsida: Sphenacodontidae) share not only a characteristic tall neural spines, but also an atypical – compared to their close respective relatives – ecology, i.e. apparently piscivorous and possibly semiaquatic mode of life. This similarity might hold clue for the role of their sails. It is here suggested that sails of these animals 1) served thermoregulatory function, warming the animals, otherwise submerged in the water, as well as 2) enabled them to hunt for fish in a way similar to the technique of Recent diapsid, black heron (Egretta ardesiaca).
Author Comment
This is a preprint submission to PeerJ Preprints.