Caudal autotomy as anti-predatory behaviour in Palaeozoic reptiles.
Caudal autotomy as anti-predatory behaviour in Palaeozoic reptiles.
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DOI：
10.1038/s41598-018-21526-3
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发表时间：
2018-03-05
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Reisz RR
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
LeBlanc ARH;MacDougall MJ;Haridy Y;Scott D;Reisz RR
许多蜥蜴在受到捕食者的攻击时会垂下一部分尾巴，这种行为被称为尾部自切。现代爬行动物的脊椎内自我切割能力表明，它是在爬行动物进化的鳞龙分支进化而来的，因为在海龟或鳄鱼中没有这样的脊椎特征。在这里，我们提出了第一个详细的证据，已知的最古老的情况下，尾部自切，只发现在早二叠世captorhinids，一组古老的爬行动物，多样化广泛，并获得了近全球分布的二叠纪末大规模灭绝事件的古生代的成员。组织学和扫描电镜证据表明，这些早期爬行动物是第一个可以自动切断尾巴的爬行动物，可能是一种反掠夺行为。与现代鬣蜥一样，较小的捕鼻蜥在幼年时能够放下尾巴，可能是为了躲避捕食者，而较大的个体可能逐渐失去了这种能力。captorhinid爬行动物的尾部自切突出了这种反捕食者的行为在一个主要由较大的两栖动物和synapsid捕食者组成的陆地社区的一个小成员的古老性。
Many lizards can drop a portion of their tail in response to an attack by a predator, a behaviour known as caudal autotomy. The capacity for intravertebral autotomy among modern reptiles suggests that it evolved in the lepidosaur branch of reptilian evolution, because no such vertebral features are known in turtles or crocodilians. Here we present the first detailed evidence of the oldest known case of caudal autotomy, found only among members of the Early Permian captorhinids, a group of ancient reptiles that diversified extensively and gained a near global distribution before the end-Permian mass extinction event of the Palaeozoic. Histological and SEM evidence show that these early reptiles were the first amniotes that could autotomize their tails, likely as an anti-predatory behaviour. As in modern iguanid lizards, smaller captorhinids were able to drop their tails as juveniles, presumably as a mechanism to evade a predator, whereas larger individuals may have gradually lost this ability. Caudal autotomy in captorhinid reptiles highlights the antiquity of this anti-predator behaviour in a small member of a terrestrial community composed predominantly of larger amphibian and synapsid predators.
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影响因子：
16.6
作者：
Cisneros JC;Marsicano C;Angielczyk KD;Smith RM;Richter M;Fröbisch J;Kammerer CF;Sadleir RW
通讯作者：
Sadleir RW
影响因子：
1.4
作者：
Kissel, RA;Dilkes, DW;Reisz, RR
通讯作者：
Reisz, RR
影响因子：
1.4
作者：
Modesto, Sean P.;Lamb, Amy J.;Reisz, R. R.
通讯作者：
Reisz, R. R.
影响因子：
2.6
作者：
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通讯作者：
PRICE, LLEWELLYN I.
影响因子：
1.4
作者：
Abdala, F;Hancox, PJ;Neveling, J
通讯作者：
Neveling, J