The Phylogeny, Functional Anatomy, and Paleobiogeography of the Placodontia (Reptilia: Sauropterygia)

9815235 Rieppel Placodontia是一群大约在2.5亿年前侵入中生代海洋的爬行动物。 板齿类仅限于特提斯动物区系西部。 它们的化石今天在中欧和环地中海国家被发现。 板齿类的首次出现与下三叠世的海平面上升有关，海平面上升创造了该群体最终多样化的栖息地。 这群人在晚三叠世海平面下降后灭绝了。虽然先前已确认有两个独立的板齿类类群，即“无装甲”（板齿总科）和“装甲”（Cyamdontoidea）板齿类，但对这两个类群之间的关系仍知之甚少。 对板齿类历史的进一步了解可能对理解爬行动物作为一个整体的更高层次的关系产生重要影响。 它还将提供必要的背景，以提高洞察力的功能解剖的喂养系统之间的成员。 了解板齿类之间的历史地理关系将反过来提高对它们所居住地区复杂地质历史的理解。

9815235 Rieppel The Placodontia were a group of reptiles that invaded the oceans of the Mesozoic around 250 million years ago. Placodonts were restricted to the western Tethyan faunal province. Their fossils are found today in Central Europe and circum-mediterranean countries. The first appearance of placodonts is correlated with a Lower Triassic sea-level rise that created the habitats where the group eventually diversified. The group went extinct in the aftermath of a Late Triassic drop in sea level. Although two separate groups of placodonts have previously been recognized, the "unarmored" (Placodontoidea) and the "armored" (Cyamdontoidea) placodonts, the relationships within the groups remain poorly understood. An improved understanding of the history of placodonts may have important consequences for understanding higher level relationships among reptiles as a whole. It will also provide the necessary background for improved insight on the functional anatomy of the feeding system among members of the group. Understanding the historical biogeographic relationships among placodonts will in turn improve understanding of the complex geological history of the region they inhabited.