Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:03:06.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Microcleidus melusinae, a new plesiosaurian (Reptilia, Plesiosauria) from the Toarcian of Luxembourg

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2017

PEGGY VINCENT ,
ROBERT WEIS ,
GUY KRONZ  and
DOMINIQUE DELSATE
PEGGY VINCENT*
Affiliation:
CR2P, CNRS-MNHN-UPMC, Département Histoire de la Terre, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, CP 38, 57 rue Cuvier, F-75005, Paris, France
ROBERT WEIS
Affiliation:
Musée national d'histoire naturelle, Centre de recherche scientifique, Section Paléontologie, 25 rue Münster, L-2160 Luxembourg, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg
GUY KRONZ
Affiliation:
Musée national d'histoire naturelle, Centre de recherche scientifique, Section Paléontologie, 25 rue Münster, L-2160 Luxembourg, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg
DOMINIQUE DELSATE
Affiliation:
Musée national d'histoire naturelle, Centre de recherche scientifique, Section Paléontologie, 25 rue Münster, L-2160 Luxembourg, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg
*
†Author for correspondence: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Most of the known and most-complete Early Jurassic specimens of plesiosaurians were recovered from the United Kingdom and Germany, and few specimens from that age originate from other areas in Europe. This study describes a new plesiosaurian taxon from Toarcian deposits of Luxembourg, Microcleidus melusinae, represented by the most complete skeleton ever discovered from this country. A preliminary phylogenetic analysis places Microcleidus melusinae within Microcleididae, as a sister taxon of the species previously included in the genus Microcleidus. The new specimen studied here contributes to our understanding of the palaeodiversity of Early Jurassic plesiosaurians and confirms their high degree of ‘endemism’ and low morphological disparity.

Keywords

JurassicLuxembourgMicrocleidusMicrocleididaePlesiosauriaToarcian
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 156 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 99 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, C. W. 1910. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Marine Reptiles of the Oxford Clay. Part I. London: British Museum (Natural History), 205 pp.Google Scholar
Andrews, C.W. 1913. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Marine Reptiles of the Oxford Clay. Part II. London: British Museum (Natural History), 206 pp.Google Scholar
Araújo, R., Polcyn, M. J., Lindgren, J., Jacobs, L. L., Schulp, A. S., Mateus, O., Olímpio Gonçalves, A. & Morais, M.-L. 2015. New aristonectine elasmosaurid plesiosaur specimens from the Early Maastrichtian of Angola and comments on paedomorphism in plesiosaurs. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 94, 93–108.Google Scholar
Bardet, N. 1992. Stratigraphic evidence for the extinction of the ichthyosaurs. Terra Nova 4, 649–56.Google Scholar
Bardet, N., Godefroit, P. & Sciau, J. 1999. A new elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the Lower Jurassic of southern France. Palaeontology 42, 927–52.Google Scholar
Bardet, N., Pereda Suberbiola, X. & Ruiz-Omeñaca, J. I. 2008. Mesozoic marine reptiles from the Iberian Peninsula. Geo-Temas 10, 1245–48.Google Scholar
Benson, R. B. J., Bates, K. T., Johnson, M. R. & Withers, P. J. 2011. Cranial anatomy of Thalassiodracon hawkinsii (Reptilia, Plesiosauria) from the Early Jurassic of Somerset, United Kingdom. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31, 562–74.Google Scholar
Benson, R. B., Butler, R. J., Lindgren, J. & Smith, A. S. 2009. Mesozoic marine tetrapod diversity: mass extinctions and temporal heterogeneity in geological megabiases affecting vertebrates. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 277, 829–34.Google Scholar
Benson, R. B. J., Evans, M. & Druckenmiller, P. S. 2012. High diversity, low disparity and small body size in plesiosaurs (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Triassic–Jurassic boundary. PLoS ONE 7, e31838. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031838.Google Scholar
Benson, R. B. J., Evans, M. & Taylor, M. A. 2015. The anatomy of Stratesaurus (Reptilia, Plesiosauria) from the Lowermost Jurassic of Somerset, United Kingdom. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 35, e933739. doi: 10.1080/02724634.2014.933739.Google Scholar
Benton, M. J. & Taylor, M. A. 1984. Marine reptiles from the Upper Lias (Lower Toarcian, Lower Jurassic) of the Yorkshire coast. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 44, 399–429.Google Scholar
Blainville, H. D. de. 1835. Description de quelques espèces de reptiles de la Californie, précédée de l'analyse d'un système général d'Erpétologie et d'Amphibiologie. Nouvelles Annales du Muséum (national) d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris (serie 3) 4, 233–96.Google Scholar
Boulila, S., Galbrun, B., Huret, E., Hinnov, L. A., Rouget, I., Gardin, S. & Bartolini, A. 2014. Astronomical calibration of the Toarcian Stage: implications for sequence stratigraphy and duration of the early Toarcian OAE. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 386, 98–111.Google Scholar
Brown, D. S. 1981. The English Upper Jurassic Plesiosauroidea (Reptilia) and a review of the phylogeny and classification of the Plesiosauria. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology 35, 253–347.Google Scholar
Brown, D. S., Vincent, P. & Bardet, N. 2013. Osteological redescription of the skull of Microcleidus homalospondylus (Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria) from the Lower Jurassic of England. Journal of Paleontology 87, 537–49.Google Scholar
Cheng, Y.-N., Sato, T., Wu, X.-C. & Li, C. 2006. First complete pistosauroid from the Triassic of China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 26, 501–4.Google Scholar
Dames, W. 1895. Die Plesiosaurier der Süddeutschen Liasformation. Abhandlungen der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1895, 1–81.Google Scholar
Delsate, D. 1997a. Actinoptérygiens du Toarcien inférieur du Grand Duché de Luxembourg. Présence de Leptolepis normandica NYBELIN 1962 (Téléostéen) avec otolithes in situ. In Notes Paléontologiques et Biostratigraphiques sur le Grand-Duché de Luxembourg et les Régions Voisines (eds Maubeuge, P. L. & Delsate, D.), pp. 105–30. Travaux scientifiques du Musée d'histoire naturelle de Luxembourg, 27.Google Scholar
Delsate, D. 1997b. Chondrichthyens mésozoïques du Luxembourg. Compléments. In Notes Paléontologiques et Biostratigraphiques sur le Grand-Duché de Luxembourg et les Régions Voisines (eds Maubeuge, P. L. & Delsate, D.), pp. 53–79. Travaux Scientifiques du Musée d'histoire naturelle de Luxembourg, 27.Google Scholar
Delsate, D. 1999a. L'ichthyofaune du Toarcien luxembourgeois. Cadre général et catalogue statistique. Travaux Scientifiques du Musée national d'histoire naturelle de Luxembourg 30, 1–101.Google Scholar
Delsate, D. 1999b. Haasichthys michelsi, nov. gen., nov. sp., un nouveau Pachycormiforme (Osteichthyes, Actinopterygii) du Toarcien inférieur (Jurassique) luxembourgeois. Travaux Scientifiques du Musée national d'histoire naturelle de Luxembourg 32, 87–140.Google Scholar
Delsate, D. 1999c. Un Pholidophoridae nouveau (Osteichthyes, Actinopterygii) du Toarcien (Jurassique inférieur) luxembourgeois. Travaux Scientifiques du Musée national d'histoire naturelle de Luxembourg 32, 141–205.Google Scholar
Delsate, D. 2003. Une nouvelle faune de poissons et requins toarciens du sud du Luxembourg (Dudelange) et de l'Allemagne (Schömberg). Bulletin de l'Académie Lorraine des Sciences 42, 1–4.Google Scholar
Delsate, D. & Godefroit, P. 1995. Chondrichthyens du Toarcien inférieur d'Aubange (Lorraine belge). In Elasmobranches et Stratigraphie (eds Herman, J. & Waes, H. Van), pp. 23–43. Brussels: Belgian Geological Survey, Professional Paper 278.Google Scholar
Delsate, D. & Candoni, L. 2001. Description de nouveaux morphotypes dentaires de Batomorphii toarciens (Jurassique inférieur) du Bassin de Paris: Archaeobatidae nov. fam. Bulletin de la Société Nationale luxembourgeoise 102, 131–43.Google Scholar
Delsate, D. & Weis, R. 2010. La Couche à Crassum (Toarcien moyen) au Luxembourg: stratigraphie et faunes de la coupe de Dudelange-Zoufftgen. In Le Jurassique Inférieur et Moyen au Luxembourg – Nouvelles Données Paléontologiques et Biostratigraphiques (eds Weis, R. & Guérin-Franiatte, S.), pp. 35–62. Ferrantia, Musée national d'histoire naturelle, Luxembourg, 62.Google Scholar
Druckenmiller, P. S. 2002. Osteology of a new plesiosaur from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Thermopolis Shale of Montana. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22, 29–42.Google Scholar
Druckenmiller, P. S. & Knutsen, E. M. 2012. Phylogenetic relationships of Upper Jurassic (middle Volgian) plesiosaurians (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Agardhfjellet Formation of central Spitsbergen, Norway. Norwegian Journal of Geology 92, 277–84.Google Scholar
Druckenmiller, P. S. & Russell, A. P. 2008. A phylogeny of Plesiosauria (Sauropterygia) and its bearing on the systematic status of Leptocleidus Andrews, 1922. Zootaxa 1863, 1–120.Google Scholar
Fuchs, D. & Weis, R. 2008. Taxonomy, morphology and phylogeny of Lower Jurassic loligosepiid coleoids (Cephalopoda). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie 249, 93–112.Google Scholar
Gasparini, Z. & Fernandez, M. 1996. Biogeographic affinities of the Jurassic marine reptile fauna of South America. In Advances in Jurassic Research – Georesearch Forum, Vol. 1–2 (ed. Riccardi, A.), pp. 443–50. Switzerland: TransTec Publications.Google Scholar
Gasparini, Z., Salgado, L. & Casadıo, S. 2003. Maastrichtian plesiosaurs from northern Patagonia. Cretaceous Research 24, 157–70.Google Scholar
Godefroit, P. 1994. Les reptiles marins du Toarcien (Jurassique inférieur) belgo-luxembourgeois. Geological Survey of Belgium 39, 1–98.Google Scholar
Großmann, F. 2007. The taxonomic and phylogenetic position of the Plesiosauroidea from the Lower Jurassic Posidonia shale of south-west Germany. Palaeontology 50, 545–64.Google Scholar
Guérin-Franiatte, S., Maquil, R. & Münzberger, P. 2010. Le Toarcien au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg: biostratigraphie dans la région de Belvaux. In Le Jurassique Inférieur et Moyen au Luxembourg – Nouvelles Données Paléontologiques et Biostratigraphiques (eds Weis, R. & Guérin-Franiatte, S.), pp. 19–34. Ferrantia, Musée national d'histoire naturelle, Luxembourg, 62.Google Scholar
Hanzo, M. 1978. A propos de nodules carbonatés du Toarcien inférieur de la région de Bettembourg (Grand-Duché de Luxembourg). 103ème Congrès national des Sociétés savantes, Nancy, Sciences 4, 343–9.Google Scholar
Hanzo, M. 1979. Milieu de dépôt et évolution diagénétique des argilites toarciennes d'après l’étude de nodules carbonatés des « schistes carton » de Bettembourg (Grand Duché de Luxembourg). Sciences de la Terre 23, 45–59.Google Scholar
Henrotay, M., Marques, D., Paicheler, J.-C., Gall, J.-C. & Nel, A. 1998. Le Toarcien inférieur des régions de Bascharage et de Bettembourg (Grand-Duché du Luxembourg): évidences paléontologiques et sédimentologiques d'environnements restreints proches de l’émersion. Geodiversitas 20, 263–84.Google Scholar
Hermoso, M., Delsate, D., Baudin, F., Le Callonnec, L., Minoletti, F., Renard, M. & Faber, A. 2014. Record of Early Toarcian carbon cycle perturbations in a nearshore environment: the Bascharage section (easternmost Paris Basin). Solid Earth 5, 793–804.Google Scholar
Huene, F. von. 1923. Ein neuer Plesiosaurier aus dem oberen Lias Württembergs. Jahreshefte des Vereins für vaterländische Naturkunde in Württemberg 79, 3–23.Google Scholar
Kaufman, L. & Rousseeuw, P. J. 1990. Finding Groups in Data: An Introduction to Cluster Analysis. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Kear, B. P. 2012. A revision of Australia's Jurassic plesiosaurs. Palaeontology 55, 1125–38.Google Scholar
Ketchum, H. F. & Benson, R. B. J. 2011. The cranial anatomy and taxonomy of Peloneustes philarchus (Sauropterygia, Pliosauridae) from the Peterborough member (Callovian, Middle Jurassic) of the United Kingdom. Palaeontology 54, 639–65.Google Scholar
Maisch, M. W. 2008. Revision der Gattung Stenopterygius Jaekel, 1904 emend. von Huene, 1922 (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) aus dem unteren Jura Westeuropas. Palaeodiversity 1, 227–71.Google Scholar
Maisch, M. W. & Rücklin, M. 2000. Cranial osteology of the sauropterygian Plesiosaurus brachypterygius from the Lower Toarcian of Germany. Palaeontology 43, 29–40.Google Scholar
Martill, D. M. 1993. Soupy substrates: a medium for the exceptional preservation of ichthyosaurs of the Posidonia Shale (Lower Jurassic) of Germany. Kaupia 2, 77–97.Google Scholar
O'Keefe, R. F. 2001. A cladistic analysis and taxonomic revision of the Plesiosauria (Reptilia: Sauropterygia). Acta Zoologica Fennica 213, 1–63.Google Scholar
Owen, R. 1860. On the orders of fossil and recent Reptilia, and their distribution through time. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 1859, 153–66.Google Scholar
Owen, R. 1865. A monograph on the fossil Reptilia of the Liassic formations. Pt. 1. Monograph for the Palaeontographical Society 17, 1–40.Google Scholar
Page, K. 2003. The Lower Jurassic of Europe: its subdivision and correlation. Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 1, 23–59.Google Scholar
Plet, C., Grice, K., Pages, A., Ruebsam, W., Coolen, M. & Schwark, L. 2016. Microbially-mediated fossil-bearing carbonate concretions and their significance for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions: a multi-proxy organic and inorganic geochemical appraisal. Chemical Geology 426, 95–108.Google Scholar
Rees, J. & Bonde, N. 1999. Plesiosaur remains from the Early Jurassic Hasle Formation, Bornholm, Denmark. In Secondary Adaptation to Life in Water, Copenhagen, Abstracts Volume (eds Hoch, E. & Brantsen, A. M.), p. 70. Copenhagen: Geologisk Museum.Google Scholar
Rieppel, O., Sander, P. M. & Storrs, G. W. 2002. The skull of the pistosaur Augustasaurus from the Middle Triassic of northwestern Nevada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22, 577–92.Google Scholar
Sachs, S., Hornung, J. J., Lierl, H.-J. & Kear, B. P. 2016. Plesiosaurian fossils from Baltic glacial erratics: evidence of Early Jurassic marine amniotes from the southwestern margin of Fennoscandia. In Mesozoic Biotas of Scandinavia and its Arctic Territories (eds Kear, B. P., Lindgren, J., Hurum, J. H., Milàn, J., & Vajda, V.), pp. 149–63. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 434.Google Scholar
Sachs, S., Schubert, S. & Kear, B. P. 2014. Mitteilung über ein neues Skelett eines Plesiosauriers (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) aus dem Oberen Pliensbachium (Unterjura) von Bielefeld, Nordwestdeutschland Berichte Naturwissenschaftlicher Verein für Bielefeld und Umgegend 52, 26–35.Google Scholar
Schwermann, L. & Sander, P. M. 2011. Osteologie und phylogenie von Westphaliasaurus simonensii: ein neuer Plesiosauride (Sauropterygia) aus dem Unteren Jura (Pliensbachium) von Sommersell (Kreis Höxter), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland. Geologie und Paläontologie in Westfalen 79, 1–56.Google Scholar
Sennikov, A. G. & Arkhangelsky, M. S. 2010. On a typical Jurassic sauropterygian from the Upper Triassic of Wilczek Land (Franz Josef Land, Arctic Russia). Paleontological Journal 44, 567–72.Google Scholar
Smith, A. S. 2008. Plesiosaurs from the Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) of Bornholm, Denmark. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28, 1213–7.Google Scholar
Smith, A. S., Araújo, R. & Mateus, O. 2012. A new plesiosauroid from the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) of Alhadas, Portugal. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 57, 257–66.Google Scholar
Smith, A. S. & Dyke, G. J. 2008. The skull of the giant predatory pliosaur Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni: implications for plesiosaur phylogenetics. Naturwissenschaften 95, 975–80.Google Scholar
Storrs, G. W. 1991. Anatomy and relationships of Corosaurus alcovensis (Diapsida: Sauropterygia) and the Triassic Alcova Limestone of Wyoming. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University 44, 1–151.Google Scholar
Storrs, G. W. 1997. Morphological and taxonomic clarification of the genus Plesiosaurus. In Ancient Marine Reptiles (eds Callaway, J. M. & Nicholls, C. L.), pp. 145–90. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Storrs, G. W. & Taylor, M. A. 1996. Cranial anatomy of a new plesiosaur genus from the lowermost Lias (Rhaetian/Hettangian) of Street, Somerset, England. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16, 403–20.Google Scholar
Suan, G., Mattioli, E., Pittet, B., Mailliot, S. & Lecuyer, C. 2008. Evidence for major environmental perturbation prior to and during the Toarcian (Early Jurassic) oceanic anoxic event from the Lusitanian Basin, Portugal. Paleoceanography 23, PA1202. doi: 10.1029/2007PA001459.Google Scholar
Sues, H.-D. 1987. Postcranial skeleton of Pistosaurus and interrelationships of the Sauropterygia (Diapsida). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 90, 109–31.Google Scholar
Swofford, D. L. 2002. PAUP*: Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (* and other methods) for Macintosh. Version 4.0b10. Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer Associates.Google Scholar
Szwedo, J. 2011. The Coleorrhyncha (Insecta: Hemiptera) of the European Jurassic, with a description of a new genus from the Toarcian of Luxembourg. Volumina Jurassica 9, 3–20.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. A. 1992. Functional anatomy of the head of the large aquatic predator Rhomaleosaurus zetlandicus (Plesiosauria, Reptilia) from the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) of Yorkshire, England. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 335, 247–80.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. A. & Cruickshank, A. R. 1993a. A plesiosaur from the Linksfield erratic (Rhaetian, upper Triassic) near Elgin, Morayshire. Scottish Journal of Geology 29, 191–6.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. A. & Cruickshank, A. R. I. 1993b. Cranial anatomy and functional morphology of Pliosaurus brachyspondylus (Reptilia: Plesiosauria) from the Upper Jurassic of Westbury, Wiltshire. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 341, 399–418.Google Scholar
Thies, D. 1992. Die Erhaltung von Fischen in den Geoden-Lagen des nordwestdeutschen Posidonienschiefers. Kaupia: Darmstadter Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte 1, 11–21.Google Scholar
Thulborn, R. A. & Warren, A. 1980. Early Jurassic plesiosaurs from Australia. Nature 285, 224–5.Google Scholar
Urlichs, M., Wild, R. & Ziegler, B. 1994. Der Posidonien-Schiefer des unteren Juras und seine Fossilien, Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie C 36, 1–95.Google Scholar
Vincent, P., Bardet, N., Suberbiola, X. P., Bouya, B., Amaghzaz, M. & Meslouh, S. 2011. Zarafasaura oceanis, a new elasmosaurid (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Maastrichtian Phosphates of Morocco and the palaeobiogeography of latest Cretaceous plesiosaurs. Gondwana Research 19, 1062–73.Google Scholar
Vincent, P., Bardet, N. & Mattioli, E. 2013. A new pliosaurid from the Pliensbachian (Early Jurassic) of Normandy (Northern France). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 58, 471–85.Google Scholar
Vincent, P. & Benson, R. B. J. 2012. Anningasaura, a basal plesiosaurian (Reptilia, Plesiosauria) from the Lower Jurassic of Lyme Regis, United Kingdom. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32, 1049–63.Google Scholar
Vincent, P., Martin, J. E., Fischer, V., Suan, G., Khalloufi, B., Sucheras-Marx, B., Lena, A., Janneau, K., Rousselle, B. & Rulleau, L. 2013. Marine vertebrate remains from the Toarcian–Aalenian succession of southern Beaujolais, Rhône, France. Geological Magazine 150, 822–34.Google Scholar
Watson, D. M. S. 1909. IV. A preliminary note on two new genera of upper Liassic plesiosaurs. Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society 54 (4), 1–28.Google Scholar
Welles, S. P. 1943. Elasmosaurid plesiosaurs with description of new material from California and Colorado. Memoirs of the University of California 13, 125–254.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Vincent et al supplementary material 1

Vincent et al supplementary material

Download Vincent et al supplementary material 1(File)
File 18.6 KB