Author
Listed:
- David C. Evans
(Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queens Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2C6
University of Toronto)
- Ryan K. Schott
(University of Toronto)
- Derek W. Larson
(University of Alberta Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology, University of Alberta
Current address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3B2)
- Caleb M. Brown
(University of Toronto)
- Michael J. Ryan
(Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval Drive, University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA)
Abstract
Taphonomic biases dictate how organisms are represented in the fossil record, but their effect on studies of vertebrate diversity dynamics is poorly studied. In contrast to the high diversity and abundance of small-bodied animals in extant ecosystems, small-bodied dinosaurs are less common than their large-bodied counterparts, but it is unclear whether this reflects unique properties of dinosaurian ecosystems or relates to taphonomic biases. A new, fully domed pachycephalosaurid dinosaur, Acrotholus audeti, from the Santonian of Alberta predates incompletely domed taxa, and provides important new information on pachycephalosaur evolution and the completeness of the ornithischian fossil record. Here we provide the first empirical evidence that the diversity of small-bodied ornithischian dinosaurs is strongly underestimated based on ghost lineages and the high proportion of robust and diagnostic frontoparietal domes compared with other pachycephalosaur fossils. This suggests preservational biases have a confounding role in attempts to decipher vertebrate palaeoecology and diversity dynamics through the Mesozoic.
Suggested Citation
David C. Evans & Ryan K. Schott & Derek W. Larson & Caleb M. Brown & Michael J. Ryan, 2013.
"The oldest North American pachycephalosaurid and the hidden diversity of small-bodied ornithischian dinosaurs,"
Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 1-11, June.
Handle:
RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms2749
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2749
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