Image: Mesosaurus fetus Pineiro et al (2016) PeerJ 4-e2036 fig S1
Description: Text associated with the figure in the original publication (excerpt): The study of a large number of mesosaur specimens from Uruguay and Brazil has provided interesting information about the changes that take places during the ontogeny of the group. One of the most amazing discovering was an almost complete, very small and beautiful preserved specimen, which was interpreted as a non-hatched Mesosaurus (Piñeiro et al. 2012)[1], probably close to complete its development, although some indications of its foetal stage are clear: the porous and poorly ossified nature of the bones, the structure of the teeth, including uncomplete and bifurcated elements, the incipient development of the front limbs, particularly the hands, contrasting with the high size of the feet, which preserve what appears to be an astragalus, as the only tarsal element observed. This specimen consists therefore, the only evidence of reproduction in an early amniote and allows us to reconstruct the earliest stages of one of the most complete ontogenetic transition known for a basal component of the group. Note: According to Piñeiro et al. (2012)[1] this specimen (catalogue no. FC-DPV 2504) is an external mold, and according to Laurin & Pineiro (2017)[2] it comes from the Lower Permian Mangrullo Formation of Uruguay.
Title: Mesosaurus fetus Pineiro et al (2016) PeerJ 4-e2036 fig S1
Credit: Fig. S1 in: The ontogenetic transformation of the mesosaurid tarsus: a contribution to the origin of the primitive amniotic astragalus. PeerJ 4:e2036, doi:10.7717/peerj.2036
Author: Graciela Piñeiro, Pablo Núñez Demarco, Melitta D. Meneghel slightly modified and retouched by Gretarsson
Permission: This image (or more exactly: its slightly different original version) was published in PeerJ journal. Their website states that the content of all PeerJ articles is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, unless indicated otherwise.
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