Quantifying differences in body proportions in Crocodylomorpha

• Grant number: 22/02249-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: December 01, 2022
• End date: November 01, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Paleozoology
• Principal Investigator: Max Cardoso Langer
• Grantee: Ana Laura da Silva Paiva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/07997-4 - Dinosaur diversity and associated faunas in the Cretaceous of South America, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/13687-6 - Quantifying the variation in body proportions within Crocodylomorpha, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Crocodylomorpha is a group representing big diversity of body plans since the Mesozoic, which keeps relation to equal diversity in terms of diet, physiology, and habitat use (including climatic bands). This is not different between Notosuchia, a predominantly terrestrial group. Diverse studies are based on living crocodilians to estimate the body size and body mass of extinct taxa, but such estimates may be wrong precisely due to variations in body plans. Studying the body plan of the crocodylomorphs is significant to trace the evolutionary history of the group more completely, as well as to infer intrinsic factors (e.g., ecology), and extrinsic factors (e.g., climate) that can influence such variations. The goal of this project is to estimate the body size and mass of the crocodilians of the Notosuchia group, using specimens with complete skeletons. Furthermore, differences in body plans in Crocodylomorpha as a whole will be investigated, in order to identify the causes of variations. Fossils of Notosucha will be measured to generate their own regression equations and to estimate the body size and mass for those with more incomplete preservation. To investigate the body plans in Crocodylomorpha, measures of these specimens will be collected as many as possible, mapping a phylogenetic tree in MrBayes software, in addition to identify evolutionary regimes applying methods such as SURFACE and bayou. Moreover, phylogenetic regression tests will be realized, testing the possible causes of the differences in body plans in Crocodylomprha.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PAIVA, ANA LAURA S.; GODOY, PEDRO L.; DUNNE, EMMA M.; FARNSWORTH, ALEXANDER; VALDES, PAUL J.; LUNT, DANIEL J.; KLEIN, WILFRIED; LANGER, MAX C.; HSIOU, ANNIE S.. The role of climate on the emergence of giant caimanines (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea) from the Miocene western Amazonian region. PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY, v. 656, p. 10-pg., 2024-12-15. (20/07997-4, 19/14153-0, 22/02249-5)