The anatomy of the upper cretaceous snake Najash rionegrina Apesteguia & Zaher, 2006, and the evolution of limblessness in snakes

Autor(es)

Zaher, Hussam ^[1] ; Apesteguia, Sebastian ^[2] ; Agustin Scanferla, Carlos ^[3]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Museu Zool, BR-04263000 Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] Univ Maimonides, Fdn Hist Nat Felix Azara CEBBAD, RA-1405 Buenos Aires, DF - Argentina

^[3] Museo Argentino Ciencias Nat Bernardino Rivadavia, Lab Anat Comparada & Evoluc Vertebrados, RA-1405 Buenos Aires, DF - Argentina

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY; v. 156, n. 4, p. 801-826, AUG 2009.
• Citações Web of Science: 38

Resumo

Najash rionegrina Apesteguia \& Zaher, 2006, a terrestrial fossil snake from the Upper Cretaceous of Argentina, represents the first known snake with a sacrum associated with robust, well-developed hind limbs. Najash rionegrina documents an important gap in the evolutionary development towards limblessness, because its phylogenetic affinities suggest that it is the sister group of all modern snakes, including the limbed Tethyan snakes Pachyrhachis, Haasiophis, and Eupodophis. The latter three limbed marine fossil snakes are shown to be more derived morphologically, because they lack a sacrum, but have articulated lymphapophyses, and their appendicular skeleton is enclosed by the rib cage, as in modern snakes. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 02/13602-4 - Evolução da fauna de répteis no sudeste brasileiro do Cretáceo superior ao recente: paleontologia, filogenia e biogeografia
• Beneficiário: Hussam El Dine Zaher
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Temático