Morturneria

Morturneria
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Reptilia
Superorder:†Sauropterygia
Order:†Plesiosauria
Family:†Elasmosauridae
Genus:†Morturneria
Chatterjee and Creisler, 1994
Species
  • Morturneria seymourensis (type) (Chatterjee and Small, 1989)

Morturneria is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous of what is now Antarctica.

Taxonomy

The genus was originally named Turneria by Chatterjee and Small (1989), but that name was preoccupied by Turneria Forel, 1895, necessitating erection of the replacement name Morturneria by Chatterjee and Creisler (1994).[1][2] Morturneria was later synonymized with Aristonectes by Gasparini et al. (2003), who interpreted the M. seymourensis holotype as a juvenile of Aristonectes because of its small size and lack of fusion of the neural arches on the vertebrae.[3] A 2017 study, however, revalidated Morturneria based on non-ontogenetic differences from Aristonectes and the discovery of a small, adult stage aristonectine from Seymour Island distinct from Aristonectes, even though O'Keefe et al. agreed with Gasparini et al. in recognizing TTU P-9219 as a juvenile.[4]

Biology

The downward-curving teeth of the lower jaw indicate that unlike most plesiosaurs, Morturneria was capable of filter-feeding, scooping sand from sediments, ejecting sediment-laden water, and preying on amphipods and other tiny prey organisms.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Chatterjee, S., and B. J. Small. 1989. New plesiosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous of Antarctica, origins and evolution of the Antarctic biota. Geology Society Special Publication 47:197–215.
  2. ↑ Chatterjee, S., and B. S. Creisler. 1994. Alwalkeria (Theropoda) and Morturneria (Plesiosauria), new names for preoccupied Walkeria Chatterjee, 1987 and Turneria Chatterjee and Small, 1989. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 14:142.
  3. ↑ Gasparini, Z., Bardet, N., Martin, J.E. and Fernandez, M.S. (2003) The elasmosaurid plesiosaur Aristonectes Cabreta from the Latest Cretaceous of South America and Antarctica. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23(1): 104-115.
  4. 1 2 O'Keefe, F., Otero, R., Soto-Acuña, S., O'gorman, J., Godfrey, S., Chatterjee, S. 2017. Cranial anatomy of Morturneria seymourensis from Antarctica, and the evolution of filter feeding in plesiosaurs of the Austral Late Cretaceous. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. doi: 10.1080/02724634.2017.1347570
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