Convergent Evolution

[Hazel Schwartz]

Hello everyone,

My name is Hazel, I hope you all are having a merry Christmas if you celebrate. I’m currently working on a project focused on convergent evolution in archosauriformes. And I am looking for resources in order to compare modern species like beavers and Castorocauda in terms of shared evolutionary traits.  

I would greatly appreciate any examples, studies, or resources that could assist me in exploring convergent traits across these species or within the broader context of archosauriform evolution.

Thank you in advance for your time and help.

[Jerry Harris]

Hi Hazel - Just to be clear, are you looking for examples of archosauriforms that converged exclusively with other archosauriforms, or are you looking for examples of archosauriforms that converged with NON-archosauriform tetrapods? And how extensive of convergence are you looking? For example, would the reduced forelimbs of abelisaurids and tyrannosaurids count? Or are you only looking for "whole body" sorts of convergence (such as "thylacine vs. wolf" kinds of things)?

[Hazel Schwartz]

Hi Jerry, sorry for the lack of information I need in the original message. I am looking for examples of archosauriforms that converged with non-archosauriforms. I do not need it to be extensive in the convergence, I just am looking for convergence presence.

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[Thomas Richard Holtz]

A classic example is longirostrine aquatic predators with narrow conical teeth. Present in gavialoids and a few other crocodyliform groups, derived phytosaurs, and spinosaurids among archosauriforms, but also present in a Prionosuchus and related archegosaurid temnospondyl amphibians and in gars and a few other actinopterygian fish groups.

Oreinorostral skulls ("hatchet heads", taller dorsoventrally than broader mediolaterally) with ziphodont (blade-like serrated teeth) are widespread in archosauriforms (erythrosuchids, many pseudosuchians, and of course many theropod dinosaurs) but is also present in ophiacodont and sphenacodont synapsids.

The notosuchian Pakasuchus had differentiated teeth alarmingly convergent on mammals and other therapsids.

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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tho...@umd.edu         Phone: 301-405-4084
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[Jerry Harris]

I'll add to this that some other notosuchian crocs (e.g., Malawisuchus, Chimaerasuchus) also converged with various mammaliaforms in having heterodont dentition including cusped, molariform teeth.

[Hazel Schwartz]

Thank you both, I was able to find a lot of what I need via looking for sources with the mentioned specimens.

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[Brad McFeeters]

Here's another interesting case:

O’Brien, H.D., Faith, J.T., Jenkins, K.E., Peppe, D.J., Plummer, T.W., Jacobs, Z.L., Li, B., Joannes-Boyau, R., Price, G., Feng, Y.X. and Tryon, C.A. 2016. Unexpected convergent evolution of nasal domes between Pleistocene bovids and Cretaceous hadrosaur dinosaurs. Current Biology 26(4): 503-508.
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(15)01581-X