Early tetrapodomorphs

Sophie Sanchez , François Clarac , Michel Laurin (1) , Armand de Ricqlès (1)

1 CR2P - Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris

Tetrapodomorphs (tetrapod total-group) comprise extant limbed vertebrates including amphibians and pan-amniotes (crown-tetrapods) as well as the extinct taxa (stem-tetrapods) that are more closely related to them than to lungfish. Although major morphological changes related to the water-to-land transition occurred within the stem group of tetrapods, the histodiversity of patterns in these taxa does not seem to be solely driven by this evolutionary event. The diversification of histological patterns in early tetrapodomorphs largely results from developmental skeletal strategies, physiological adaptations and shifts in bone biomechanical properties. In temnospondyls, for example, this histodiversity seems to reflect a great somatic plasticity at the origin of the survival of this major group over 250 million years. It is worth noting that histological patterns greatly vary as well among skeletal elements (e.g., dermal bones versus endoskeletal bones) in early tetrapodomorphs.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Sophie Sanchez, François Clarac, Michel Laurin, Armand de Ricqlès. Early tetrapodomorphs. de Buffrénil, V.; de Ricqlès, A.,; Zylberberg, L.; Padian, K.; Laurin, M.; Quilhac, A. Vertebrate Skeletal Histology and Paleohistology, CRC Press, pp.325-344, 2021, 9780367700867. ⟨10.1201/9781351189590-16⟩. ⟨hal-03500038⟩