| 1. |
- Qvarnström, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Beetle-bearing coprolites possibly reveal the diet of a Late Triassic dinosauriform
- 2019
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In: Royal Society Open Science. - : The Royal Society. - 2054-5703. ; 6:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Diets of extinct animals can be difficult to analyse if no direct evidence, such as gut contents, is preserved in association with body fossils. Inclusions from coprolites (fossil faeces), however, may also reflect the diet of the host animal and become especially informative if the coprolite producer link can be established. Here we describe, based on propagation phase-contrast synchrotron microtomography (PPC-SRμCT), the contents of five morphologically similar coprolites collected from two fossil-bearing intervals from the highly fossiliferous Upper Triassic locality at Krasiejow in Silesia, Poland. Beetle remains, mostly elytra, and unidentified exoskeleton fragments of arthropods are the most conspicuous inclusions found in the coprolites. The abundance of these inclusions suggests that the coprolite producer deliberately targeted beetles and similar small terrestrial invertebrates as prey, but the relatively large size of the coprolites shows that it was not itself a small animal. The best candidate from the body fossil record of the locality is the dinosauriform Silesaurus opolensis Dzik, 2003, which had an anatomy in several ways similar to those of bird-like neotheropod dinosaurs and modern birds. We hypothesize that the beak-like jaws of S. opolensis were used to efficiently peck small insects off the ground, a feeding behaviour analogous to some extant birds.
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| 2. |
- Qvarnström, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Exceptionally preserved beetles in a Triassic coprolite of putative dinosauriform origin
- 2021
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In: Current Biology. - : Elsevier. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 31:15, s. 3374-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Triassic was a crucial period for the early evolution and diversification of insects, including Coleoptera(1-3)-the most diverse order of organisms on Earth. The study of Triassic beetles, however, relies almost exclusively on flattened fossils with limited character preservation. Using synchrotron microtomography, we investigated a fragmentary Upper Triassic coprolite, which contains a rich record of 3D-preserved minute beetle remains of Triamyxa coprolithica gen. et sp. nov. Some specimens are nearly complete, preserving delicate structures of the legs and antennae. Most of them are congruent morphologically, implying that they are conspecific. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that T. coprolithica is a member of Myxophaga, a small suborder of beetles with a sparse fossil record, and that it represents the only member of the extinct family Triamyxidae fam. nov. Our findings highlight that coprolites can contain insect remains, which are almost as well preserved as in amber. They are thus an important source of information for exploring insect evolution before the Cretaceous-Neogene "amber time window."Treated as food residues, insect remains preserved in coprolites also have important implications for the paleoecology of insectivores, in this case, likely the dinosauriform Silesaurus opolensis.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Vikberg Wernström, Per Joel Olof, et al.
(author)
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Cruise Report HHUMTL22
- 2022
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The HHUMTL22 cruise onboard R/V Helmer Hanssen was an initiative by The Arctic University Museum of Norway (UMAK) aimed at sampling marine fauna for the museum collections and various research projects undertaken at the museum. Researchers from the Swedish Museum of Natural History and the Department of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Vienna also participated in the cruise. Cruise leader was Andreas Altenburger (UMAK).
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| 5. |
- Wernström, Joel Vikberg, et al.
(author)
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Geometric morphometrics of macro- and meiofaunal priapulid pharyngeal teeth provides a proxy for studying Cambrian "tooth taxa"
- 2023
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In: Zoomorphology. - : Springer. - 0720-213X .- 1432-234X. ; 142, s. 411-421
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Priapulids are marine, benthic ecdysozoan worms that feed using a distinctive toothed pharynx. While only a handful of lineages have survived to the present day, the Cambrian priapulid stem group left behind a rich record of articulated body fossils and characteristic trace fossils in the form of burrows. Recently, the fossil record of isolated priapulid cuticular elements including pharyngeal teeth has gained increased attention as a means of revealing cryptic priapulid taxa otherwise unknown among macrofossils. In this study, we focus on the ecological implications of shape variation in the teeth of extant and extinct priapulids, which display substantial morphological differences between taxa and life stages. We define a landmarking scheme to capture shape variation in priapulid teeth and apply it to our dataset, which includes a breadth of tooth specimens from extant macrofaunal and meiofaunal lineages alongside numerous Cambrian priapulid teeth preserved as isolated small carbonaceous fossils. Through ordination of the principal components of shape, we explore the priapulid tooth morphospace and find evidence that its occupancy has expanded since Cambrian times, indicating a corresponding expansion of the group's ecological niche. We also employ our geometric morphometric approach to make linear discriminant analysis-based taxon assignments based on tooth morphology, which can be helpful for classifying enigmatic "tooth taxa" known solely from fossil teeth. Finally, we use discriminant analysis to study tooth shapes from a functional perspective, considering known ecologies to characterize the ecological functions of unclassified isolated teeth.
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