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Late Jurassic teeth of plesiosauroid origin from the Owadów-Brzezinki Lägerstatte, Central Poland - PubMed

  • ️Sun Jan 01 2023

Late Jurassic teeth of plesiosauroid origin from the Owadów-Brzezinki Lägerstatte, Central Poland

Łukasz Weryński et al. PeerJ. 2023.

Abstract

Owadów-Brzezinki is currently one of the most promising Upper Jurassic sites in Central Poland, with a wide array of both vertebrate and invertebrate fossil fauna present. The discoveries of large-bodied marine reptiles fossils such as ichthyosaurs, turtles, and marine crocodylomorphs attracted attention to the location. A particular Mesozoic marine group, plesiosaurs, remained to be found, and in this report, we note four isolated teeth with distinguishing apicobasal ridging pattern and elongated, conical shape characteristic for plesiosaurians. The outcomes of the Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) of the largest and most complete tooth specimen ZPAL R.11/OB/T4 enabled us to confirm its classification as Plesiosauroidea. This discovery affirms the importance of the site as the area of mixing between Boreal and Tethyan faunas, expanding the broad spectrum of fossil taxa found in this location. Together with previous findings of plesiosaur material in a nearby region, it provides the evidence for the presence of Plesiosauroidea in Owadów-Brzezinki Lägerstatte.

Keywords: Late Jurassic; Marine reptile; Owadów-Brzezinki; Plesiosauria; Teeth.

© 2023 Weryński and Błażejowski.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Location of the site and lithological succession in the study area with tooth bearing interval marked.

(A) Lithological succession and biostratigraphy of the Owadów-Brzezinki Quarry. The topmost part of the Pałuki Fm and overlying limestones of the Kcynia Fm (Units I–IV). (B) Road map with the location of the Owadów-Brzezinki site and its proximity to Tomaszów Mazowiecki in Central Poland. (C) General view of the Owadów-Brzezinki section (paleontological field work in the uppermost part of the Pałuki Fm). Abbreviations: Fm, Formation; Sz., Subzone; Z., Zone.

Figure 2
Figure 2. Teeth specimens featured in this study.

(A–F) ZPAL R.11/OB/T4, (A) overview; (B) distal face and apicobasal ridges in close view (C). (D) Labial face and apicobasal ridges in close view (E). (F) Mesial face and close view of apical (G), mid-crown (H) and basal (I) teeth sections. (J) ZPAL R.11/OB/T3 in distal view with prominent, sharp apicobasal ridges highlighted (K). (L) ZPAL R.11/OB/T2 in labial view with close view of teeth base (M). (N) ZPAL R.11/OB/T1 in lingual view with close view of mid crown apicobasal ridges (O).

Figure 3
Figure 3. ZPAL R.11/OB/T4 (black star) morphospace occupation among marine reptiles of Jurassic, visualization of results of PCoA, segregation along principal coordinates 1 and 2.

Based on the modified dataset from Madzia, Szczygielski & Wolniewicz (2021), originally from Foffa et al. (2018) compared against the Plesiosauria. The silhouette of the Pliosauridae taken from Phylopic, by Nobu Tamura, vectorized by T. Michael Keesey (CC BY 3.0 SA), link:

https://www.phylopic.org/images/91036b62-ca14-4c61-9cf6-67c4940d8c02/peloneustes-philarchus

.

Figure 4
Figure 4. Specimen teeth sketch figure showing general morphologies, with each face highlighted.

(A) ZPAL R.11/OB/T1, lingual view. (B) ZPAL R. 11/OB/T2, labial view. (C) ZPAL R. 11/OB/T3, distal view. (D) ZPAL R. 11/OB/T4, lingual view (E) ZPAL R. 11/OB/T4, apical view. Abbreviations: lg, lingual; lb, labial; ds, distal; ap, apical.

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Grants and funding

Travel and field work were supported by the Polish National Science Center Grant no. 2020/39/B/ST10/01489. The research in 2022 was supported by the Priority Research Area (WSPR.WGiG.1.5.2022.2) under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at Jagiellonian University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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