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XII Annual Meeting of the
European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists
Torino, Italy
24-28 June 2014
Host committee
Massimo Delfino, Giorgio Carnevale, Simone Colombero, Daniele Ormezzano, Giulio Pavia,
Marco Pavia & Giovanni Repetto
Organized by
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra - Università degli Studi di Torino
in collaboration with
Geomeetings Torino
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biologia dei Sistemi - Università degli Studi di Torino
Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona
Museo dei Fossili di Bolca
Museo Eusebio - Alba
Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali - Torino
Regione Piemonte
Transmitting Science
Under the patronage of the
Società Paleontologica Italiana
Logo of the 12th EAVP meeting by Giorgio Carnevale
XII EAVP Meeting – Torino 24-28 June 2014 – Abstract Book
144
NEW DATA ON BIOGEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION OF
RHYNCHOSAURS
M. Tałanda1*, J. Kowalski2, G. Niedźwiedzki3, and T. Sulej4
1 Department of Paleobiology and Evolution, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Poland
2 Department of Biosystematics, Opole University, Poland
3 Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Sweden
4 Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
*m.talanda@student.uw.edu.pl
Keywords: Rhynchosauria, Norian, Rhaetian, Triassic, Europe.
Rhynchosaurs are a group of herbivorous basal archosauromorphs. Their jaws with beak and
tooth-plates were adapted to rough plant material. Hind limbs with large claws and characteristic
morphology of pelvis where designed for digging. They were one of the main component of
many Middle and early Late Triassic terrestrial ecosystems. Their fossils were found in
numerous localities in Americas, Africa and India. These suggest that rhynchosaurs had wide
geographical range across Pangea. Limits of this ambit remain unknown due to poor sampling
in southern- and northern-most parts of Pangea (Australia and Antarctica from one side and
Eurasia from the other side of the globe). In Europe, the rhynchosaur record is restricted to the
Otter Sandstone and Lossiemouth Sandstone (Anisian-Ladinian and Carnian) from the Great
Britain. Here we communicate about two new localities (Woźniki and Lisowice) with fossils of
these archosauromorphs from the Upper Triassic of Poland. This exceeds their range to Central
Europe. What is more, it was postulated that rhynchosaurs became extinct with the end of the
Carnian. The new findings from the Lower-Middle Norian of Americas falsified this hypothesis.
Rhynchosaur from Lisowice is dated as latest Norian or early Rhaetian, thus they prolong
further the range of the entire group. This new form resembles Hyperodapedon gordoni from the
Carnian of England. The distinct funnel-like groove on acetabular wall of this new rhynchosaur
species is interpreted as a place for the femoral ligaments. Probably this lineage was improving
its digging abilities.