Electronic Theses and Dissertations (PhDs)

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Browsing Electronic Theses and Dissertations (PhDs) by Author "Benoit, Julien"

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    Reassessment of the Phylogeny of Basal Therapsida Using Micro-Tomography and Bayesian Phylogeny
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Duhamel, Alienor; Rubidge, Bruce; Benoit, Julien
    This PhD research is focussed on the evolution and cranial anatomy of the earliest therapsids. The Therapsida is a paraphyletic group of land tetrapods that lived mostly during the Permian and Triassic Periods. They emerged quite suddenly in the fossil record during the middle Permian, already showing diversification into five distinct groups: Biarmosuchia, Dinocephalia, Anomodontia, Gorgonopsia and Therocephalia. A sixth group, the Cynodontia, appeared during the late Permian. Of these, the anomodonts, therocephalians, and cynodonts survived the devastating Permo-Triassic mass extinction and continued to be the dominant tetrapods during the Early and Middle Triassic Periods. Ultimately, the cynodonts would evolve into the earliest mammals. Chapter 1 introduces the scientific questions tackled in this thesis. Chapter 2 provides the necessary explanations about the material and methods used for this work. The use of CT-scanning technology allows for the detailed examination of cranial internal morphology, with the goal of incorporating inner cranial characters into a phylogenetic framework. Chapters 3 and 6 focus on the fossilisation gap at the early to middle Permian transition, which has led to debates over the timing of the early diversification of the Therapsida. In Chapter 3, the geologic position and anatomy of one of the oldest known therapsids, Raranimus dashankouensis is reviewed. The chapter concludes with a reassessment of the basal phylogenetic position of Raranimus and suggests a Roadian origin for the taxon. Chapter 6 presents a comprehensive analysis of cranial morphological characters based on the descriptions and findings from Chapters 3, 4, and 5. Using both traditional maximum parsimony and clock-based Bayesian inference of phylogeny for the first time on the Therapsida, the results suggest that therapsids originated around 280.5 million years ago and rapidly diversified into several distinct clades during the Kungurian and Roadian Epochs. The phylogenetic relationships of several taxa are reevaluated and the findings suggest that Biseridens is more closely related to the Dinocephalia and Biarmosuchia, rather than the Anomodontia. Furthermore, the results suggest that Sinophoneus may represent the basal-most dinocephalian, and that Therocephalia might be paraphyletic. Therapsids were characterised by a wide range of cranial morphologies, with the Biarmosuchia and Anomod ontia exhibiting distinct cranial features. Both groups are considered basal among therapsids. Chapter 4 of this PhD research focuses on the postnatal ontogenetic development of cranial ornamentation in Biarmosuchia and possible impact on phylogeny. The results suggests that cranial bosses and ridges are ontogenetic features and the parietal bone originates from multiple centres of ossification. Chapter 5 is a comprehensive cranial description of several basal anomodont specimens. The Chapter concludes with a review of the taxonomy of the genus Eodicynodon and proposes the creation of a new taxonomical unit for specimen NMQR 2913.