Emanuel Tschopp

• PhD in Paleontology
• Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at Freie Universität Berlin

The Upper Jurassic of Portugal is well known for its dinosaurian fauna, which includes five sauropod species. Although only one of these species preserves associated dental material, isolated sauropod teeth are commonly found in the Upper Jurassic units of Portugal. The morphological diversity of Portuguese sauropod teeth has already been described...

Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) has been widely used in the study of dietary habits and trends of animals, based on the abrasion patterns preserved in dental enamel. Therefore, it is seen as an important tool when it comes to understanding the ecology, niche partitioning, and competition between co-occurring taxa, both extant and extinct....

The Morrison Formation of the western United States is well-known for its high diversity of sauropod dinosaurs. The Howe-Stephens Quarry in northern Wyoming is one of several quarries which has yielded several associated to completely articulated dinosaur specimens, among which a semi-articulated diplodocid specimen, MAB011899, which was excavated...

Tooth-marked bones provide important evidence for feeding choices made by extinct carnivorous animals. In the case of the dinosaurs, most bite traces are attributed to the large and robust osteophagous tyrannosaurs, but those of other large carnivores remain underreported. Here we report on an extensive survey of the literature and some fossil coll...

Sauropod dinosaurs are well known for their massive sizes and long necks and tails. Among sauropods, flagellicaudatan dinosaurs are characterized by extreme tail elongation, which has led to hypotheses regarding tail function, often compared to a whip. Here, we analyse the dynamics of motion of a 3D model of an apatosaurine flagellicaudatan tail us...

The Eocene fossil reptiles from the Bolca Fossil-Lagerstätte (Verona, Italy) have been known in the literature since at least the 1850’ and were the subject of many studies during the second half of the XIX century and the first decades of the XX century. However, with the exception of a few papers, only rare works have been published on the Monte...

Taphonomic and diagenetic processes inevitably distort the original skeletal morphology of fossil vertebrate remains. Key aspects of palaeobiological datasets may be directly impacted by such morphological deformation, such as taxonomic diagnoses and phylogenetic hypotheses, interpretations of the shape and orientation of anatomical structures, and...

The Morrison Formation has been explored for dinosaurs for more than 150 years, often specifically for large sauropod skeletons curators wanted to mount as attractions in their museum exhibits around the world. Several long-term campaigns to the Jurassic West of the United States produced hundreds of specimens, ranging from isolated, fragmentary bo...

Generally, the species is considered to be the only naturally occurring taxon. However, species recognised and defined using different species delimitation criteria cannot readily be compared, impacting studies of biodiversity through Deep Time. This comparability issue is particularly marked when comparing extant with extinct species, because the...

Generally, the species is considered to be the only naturally occurring taxon. However, species recognised and defined using different species delimitation criteria cannot readily be compared, impacting studies of biodiversity through Deep Time. This comparability issue is particularly marked when comparing extant with extinct species, because the...

The construction of morphological character matrices is central to paleontological systematic study, which extracts paleontological information from fossils. Although the word information has been repeatedly mentioned in a wide array of paleontological systematic studies, its meaning has rarely been clarified nor specifically defined. It is importa...

The Early Pleistocene site of Pietrafitta (central Italy) produced a rich vertebrate assemblage from the Late Villafranchian Land Mammal Age (late MN18). Geological and paleobotanical data from Pietrafitta indicate a lacustrine environment, surrounded by a humid deciduous broadleaved forest with a temperate climate. The vertebrate assemblage consis...

Sauropod dinosaurs were an abundant and diverse component of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the USA, with 24 currently recognized species. However, some authors consider this high diversity to have been ecologically unviable and the validity of some species has been questioned, with suggestions that they represent growth series (ontogimor...

The construction of morphological character matrices is central to paleontological systematic study, which extracts paleontological information from fossils. Although the word information has been repeatedly mentioned in a wide array of paleontological systematic studies, its meaning has rarely been clarified and there has not been a standard to me...

The construction of morphological character matrices is central to paleontological systematic study, which extracts paleontological information from fossils. Although the word information has been repeatedly mentioned in a wide array of paleontological systematic studies, its meaning has rarely been clarified and there has not been a standard to me...

Several extinct species are known from the family Lacertidae, but due to poor preservation, many of them are based on single bones. Here, we compare phylogenetic signals of disarticulated premaxillae, maxillae and dentaries of lacertids from four French Oligocene localities (Coderet, La Colombière, Roqueprune 2, Mas de Got B). We identified five mo...

Díez Díaz, V.; Belvedere, M.; Böhmer, C.; Bueno, E.; Choiniere, J.; Darlim, G.; Drozdz, D.; Iannucci, A.; Kotthoff, U.; Malafaia, E.; Mallison, H.; Marigó, J.; Miedema, F.;Mujal, E.; Pardo, J.; Perillo, M.; Sciscio, L.; Tajika, A.; Tschopp, E.; van Heteren, A.H.; Vlachos, E. 2021. How to bring taxonomy into the third dimension: developing guideline...

The first three-dimensionally preserved sauropod dinosaur embryo surprises paleontologists. A member of the gigantic titanosaurs, its peculiar morphology shows how much these animals changed during growth and has implications for ecology and skull development that go beyond paleontology.

Vipera walser is the most recently recognized European viper. This rare species is endemic to a small area in the Piedmont Alps of Italy, but its closest relatives are found among the Caucasian viper species. In order to provide a starting point for a phylogenetic and biogeographic investigation based on osteology, and including fossils remains, we...

The dispersal of Crocodylus from Africa to Europe during the Miocene is not well understood. A small collection of cranial fragments and postcranial elements from the latest Miocene (6.2 Ma) site of Venta del Moro (Valencia, Spain) have previously been referred to Crocodylus cf. C. checchiai Maccagno, 1947 without accompanying descriptions. Here we...

We continue our trip back in time through the Mesozoic, visiting several different ecosystems across the planet. Each of these was strongly influenced by the continental breakup from a single landmass into several tectonic plates and associated landmasses during this period. We will visit localities on several continents, observe how their vertebra...

If we imagine walking through Mesozoic lands, we would be able to observe vertebrates with peculiar combinations of morphological traits, some of which would seem to be intermediary to animals seen today. We would witness a terrestrial vertebrate fauna dominated by dinosaurs of various sizes and diversity, accompanied by many other animal groups th...

In 1934, Barnum Brown of the American Museum of Natural History in New York (AMNH) led a large-scale dinosaur excavation in northern Wyoming, where he had found bones two years earlier. Initially, Brown expected to excavate two skeletons of sauropod dino- saurs, but soon after opening the quarry, the team realized that the site far exceeded their e...

This book simulates a historical walk through nature, teaching readers about the biodiversity on Earth in various eras with a focus on past terrestrial environments. Geared towards a student audience, using simple terms and avoiding long complex explanations, the book discusses the plants and animals that lived on land, the evolution of natural sys...

The Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the western United States preserves one of the best-known Mesozoic paleoecosystems worldwide. The formation crops out over an area from New Mexico and Oklahoma to Montana and Utah and encompasses a time span of approximately eight million years. Recent studies indicate a high diversity of gigantic, herbivoro...

The Morrison Formation has been explored for dinosaurs for more than 150 years, often specifically for largesauropod skeletons curators wanted to mount as attractions in their museum exhibits around the world. Severallong-term campaigns to the Jurassic West of the United States produced hundreds of specimens, ranging fromisolated, fragmentary bones...

The Morrison Formation has been explored for dinosaurs for more than 150 years, often specifically for large sauropod skeletons curators wanted to mount as attractions in their museum exhibits around the world. Several long-term campaigns to the Jurassic West of the United States produced hundreds of specimens, ranging from isolated, fragmentary bo...

The Morrison Formation has been explored for dinosaurs for more than 150 years, in particular for large sauropod skeletons to be mounted in museum exhibits around the world. Several long-term campaigns to the Jurassic West of the United States produced hundreds of specimens, ranging from isolated, fragmentary bones to nearly complete skeletons of t...

Diplocynodon is a genus of basal alligatoroid comprising nine species, which spanned the late Paleocene to middle Miocene of Europe. Despite recent revisions of most Diplocynodon species, one of the earliest named and most complete, Diplocynodon hantoniensis, has not been redescribed for over 150 years. This species is known from the remains of num...

Diplocynodon is a genus of basal alligatoroid comprising nine species, which spanned the late Palaeocene to middle Miocene of Europe. Despite recent revisions of most Diplocynodon species, one of the earliest named and most complete, Diplocynodon hantoniensis, has not been re-described for over 150 years. This species is known from the remains of n...

Specimen-level phylogenetic approaches are widely used in molecular biology for taxonomic and systematic purposes. However, they have been largely ignored in analyses based on morphological traits, where phylogeneticists mostly resort to species-level analyses. Recently, a number of specimen-level studies have been published in vertebrate palaeonto...

The sauropod dinosaur genus Diplodocus Marsh, 1878, is currently typified by a morphologically undiagnosable type species, D. longus Marsh, 1878. Only two caudal vertebrae and an associated partial chevron of its holotype (Yale Peabody Museum [YPM] VP.001920) remain reasonably complete, but more, fragmentary caudal vertebrae are available, and prov...

Diplodocid sauropods had a unique skull morphology, with posteriorly retracted nares, an elongated snout, and anteriorly restricted, peglike teeth. Because of the lack of extant analogs in skull structure and tooth morphology, understanding their feeding strategy and diet has been difficult. Furthermore, the general rarity of sauropod skulls and th...

Timon is a large-sized lacertid lizard genus with a peculiar current distribution around the Mediterranean. Six species form three distinct clades, which are geographically separated from each other. These clades inhabit the Iberian Peninsula, France and the north-western coast of Italy (Timon lepidus and T. nevadensis); the North-African part of t...

A set of associated left pedal elements of a sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in Weston County, Wyoming, is described here. Several camarasaurids, a nearly complete small brachiosaur, and a small diplodocid have been found at this locality, but none match the exceptionally large size of the pedal elements. Next to the as...

Eusauropod metatarsal V elongation Red ratios are based on measurements taken from figures.

Among dinosaurs, the pubis has convergently retroverted four times in Maniraptora (Theropoda) and once in Ornithischia. Although a clear correlation has not been demonstrated, it has been previously proposed that two traits were related to pubic retroversion: the reduced importance of cuirassal ventilation, and a herbivorous diet. Here, we analyse...

Phylogenetic analyses of morphological data are often characterized by missing data due to incomplete operational taxonomic units, as in fossils. This incomplete knowledge derives from various reasons, including—in the case of fossils—the numerous filters an organism has to pass through during taphonomy, fossilization, weathering and collecting. Wh...

Diplodocids are among the best known sauropod dinosaurs. Numerous specimens of currently 15 accepted species belonging to ten genera have been reported from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous of North and South America, Europe, and Africa. The highest diversity is known from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the western United States: a r...

Character list used in the phylogenetic analysis Modified from Tschopp, Mateus & Benson (2015a))

Apomorphies recovered by TNT List of the autapomorphies and synapomorphies of the OTUs and nodes of the phylogenetic analysis.

Phylogenetic matrix TNT input file.

High-quality scientific illustration is an important visualization tool for natural sciences. In paleontology, drawings help to guide the reader to important features of the fossils under study, and to remove irrelevant information or strong shadows that might obscure parts of photographs. Furthermore, drawings allow for the deformation of the foss...

http://pfeil-verlag.de/publikationen/jurassic-harz/

The capability of palaeontologists to identify fossil remains of a particular group of vertebrates strongly depends on the knowledge they have of its comparative osteology and on the actual presence of diagnostic differences among the considered taxa. This could have a relevant influence on the study of palaeodiversity, since a low recognisability...

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009;...

This plot is not part of the published stance but derives from it. The plot shows the number of authors by geographic region (courtesy of Dr. Diego Astua).

The evolution of powered flight happened three times independently in vertebrates (bats, pterosaurs, and birds). Among these, avian flight is unique in the inclusion of the tail into the forelimb locomotor module. In birds, the shortened tail is connected to a retroverted pubis through the internal and external pubocaudalis muscles. These muscles c...

Disarticulated remains of palaeobatrachids coming from the early Pleistocene (Gelasian) of Tegelen (The Netherlands) are here described and referred to the new species Palaeobatrachus eurydices. The new species has been included in the first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis considering all known species of the genus Palaeobatrachus and was found...

The fossil record offers the only direct evidence concerning the spatial and chronological dimensions of the evolutionary processes occurred in the past. However, completeness of the record and its knowledge does not always allow researchers to have precise enough information to provide accurate evolutionary scenarios and support the calibration of...

The purpose of this application, under Articles 78.1 and 81.1 of the Code, is to replace Diplodocus longus Marsh, 1878 as the type species of the sauropod dinosaur genus Diplodocus by the much better represented D. carnegii Hatcher, 1901, due to the undiagnosable state of the holotype of D. longus (YPM 1920, a partial tail and a chevron). The holot...

Vertebral laminae are bony ridges or sheets that connect important morphological landmarks on the vertebrae, like diapophyses or zygapophyses. They usually exhibit some serial variation throughout the column. A consistent terminology facilitates the morphological description of this variation, and the recognition of patterns that could be taxonomic...

Centroprezygapophyseal lamina (CPRL), serial variation in presacral vertebrae of Lacertini. Boxes represent the vertebrae in the column, including the atlas. Filled boxes indicate presence of the lamina in the respective vertebrae, whereas a dash stands for absence. Only the seven specimens with articulated vertebral column could be assessed. (PDF)

Posterior centrosynapophyseal lamina (PCYL), serial variation in presacral vertebrae of Lacertini. Boxes represent the vertebrae in the column, including the atlas. Filled boxes indicate presence of the lamina in the respective vertebrae, whereas a dash stands for absence. Only the seven specimens with articulated vertebral column could be assessed...

Interprezygapophyseal lamina (TPRL), serial variation in presacral vertebrae of Lacertini. Boxes represent the vertebrae in the column, including the atlas. Filled boxes indicate presence of the lamina in the respective vertebrae, whereas a dash stands for absence. Only the seven specimens with articulated vertebral column could be assessed. (PDF)

Postzygoprezygapophyseal lamina (PPRL), serial variation in presacral vertebrae of Lacertini. Boxes represent the vertebrae in the column, including the atlas. Filled boxes indicate presence of the lamina in the respective vertebrae, whereas a dash stands for absence. Only the seven specimens with articulated vertebral column could be assessed. (PD...

Spinopostzygapophyseal lamina (SPOL), serial variation in presacral vertebrae of Lacertini. Boxes represent the vertebrae in the column, including the atlas. Filled boxes indicate presence of the lamina in the respective vertebrae, whereas a dash stands for absence. Only the seven specimens with articulated vertebral column could be assessed. (PDF)

Spinoprezygapophyseal lamina (SPRL), serial variation in presacral vertebrae of Lacertini. Boxes represent the vertebrae in the column, including the atlas. Filled boxes indicate presence of the lamina in the respective vertebrae, whereas a dash stands for absence. Only the seven specimens with articulated vertebral column could be assessed. (PDF)

Centropostzygapophyseal lamina (CPOL), serial variation in presacral vertebrae of Lacertini. Boxes represent the vertebrae in the column, including the atlas. Filled boxes indicate presence of the lamina in the respective vertebrae, whereas a dash stands for absence. Only the seven specimens with articulated vertebral column could be assessed. (PDF...

Prespinal lamina (PRSL), serial variation in presacral vertebrae of Lacertini. Boxes represent the vertebrae in the column, including the atlas. Filled boxes indicate presence of the lamina in the respective vertebrae, whereas a dash stands for absence. Only the seven specimens with articulated vertebral column could be assessed. (PDF)

Postspinal lamina (POSL), serial variation in presacral vertebrae of Lacertini. Boxes represent the vertebrae in the column, including the atlas. Filled boxes indicate presence of the lamina in the respective vertebrae, whereas a dash stands for absence. Only the seven specimens with articulated vertebral column could be assessed. (PDF)

Several types of pathological bony overgrowth are known from various dinosaur taxa but, except for stress fractures, are rarely reported from appendicular elements. Herein we describe pathological manual and pedal phalanges of a camarasaurid sauropod (SMA 0002), which show features rarely recognised in non-avian dinosaurs. They include lateral oste...

Skeletons of sauropods are rarely found with fore and hind feet, and until now, only one specimen of this clade has been reported with all four autopodia preserved complete and articulated. This makes interpretations on their locomotion difficult and proper assignments of footprints to genus- or even species-level taxa are generally impossible. Cam...

Diplodocidae are among the best known sauropod dinosaurs. Several species were described in the late 1800s or early 1900s from the Morrison Formation of North America. Since then, numerous additional specimens were recovered in the USA, Tanzania, Portugal, and Argentina, as well as possibly Spain, England, Georgia, Zimbabwe, and Asia. To date, the...

Camarasaurus is considered one of the best known sauropod dinosaurs from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the USA. Numerous finds are referred to four widely accepted species: C. supremus (type species), C. grandis, C. lentus, and C. lewisi. The osteology of the genus is considered completely known, but this knowledge is mostly based on spe...

Tectonic strain is ubiquitous in rock formations, leading to deformations, faults, and cracks at small as well as large scales. Fossils embedded in these strata will passively participate in these deformations, and have rarely been found undistorted. This affects ratios used in phylogenetic analyses. As a case study, diplodocid (Dinosauria: Sauropo...

A new taxon of diplodocid sauropod, Kaatedocus siberi gen. et sp. nov., is recognized based on well-preserved cervical vertebrae and skull from the Morrison Formation (Kimmeridgian, Late Jurassic) of northern Wyoming, USA. A phylogenetic analysis places it inside Diplodocinae (Sauropoda: Flagellicaudata: Diplodocidae), as a sister taxon to a clade...

Ossified gastralia, clavicles and sternal ribs are known in a variety of reptilians, including dinosaurs. In sauropods, however, the identity of these bones is controversial. The peculiar shapes of these bones complicate their identification, which led to various differing interpretations in the past. Here we describe different elements from the ch...

The protection and preservation of irrecoverable, sensitive and fragile objects in museums, exhibitions and collections is critical in various research fields like cultural heritage, human sciences and paleontology. Lately, digitization of such endangered specimens proved to be a valuable tool to convert the objects into a digital form. However, in...

Despite its increasing use and utility, 3D scanning techniques are still considered quite expensive for the great majority of research institutions. As such, a cost effective technique to acquire and produce 3D data as accurate as possible would be a very valuable tool to paleontologists. We achieved excellent scanning results with a low-cost syste...

Dinosaur skin impressions are rare in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, but different sites on the Howe Ranch in Wyoming (USA), comprising specimens from diplodocid, camarasaurid, allosaurid and stegosaurian dinosaurs, have proven to be a treasure-trove for these soft-tissue remains. Here we describe stegosaurian skin impressions from North Am...