The power of the neglected body: the importance of postcranial anatomy for our understanding of the ecology and evolution of the Rhynchocephalia (Lepidosauria)

Rhynchocephalia是Lepidosauria的两个主要谱系之一。它们代表了有鳞目（蜥蜴和蛇）的姐妹分类群，是当今陆地脊椎动物中最多样化的分支之一。然而，与有鳞类相反，喙头类现在只有一个物种，即新西兰的斑楔齿蜥。与此相反，在中生代，喙头类在分类学和生态学上都是多样的，至少在侏罗纪之前，喙头类在这方面可能超过了有鳞目。喙头类的化石记录主要是由颌骨和牙齿组成的，因此我们对喙头类的发育和生态的解释主要是基于颌骨和牙齿的特征。然而，最近的鳞片表明，颅后骨骼可以提供重要的见解，这些方面。在一些特殊的化石化石中，如德国南部的晚侏罗世石印石灰岩中，发现了丰富的喙头动物群，经常保存完整或几乎完整的颅后遗迹。因此，这个动物群代表了一个独特的机会，以评估颅后字符的重要性，我们的理解rhynchocephalian生态，多样性和发育。因此，在这个项目中，我们计划记录的形态多样性的颅后骨骼在rhynchocephalians和调查的重要性，颅后字符解释生态和这组内的生殖。为此，我们将使用与现代鳞片骨骼学和肌肉学的比较，并应用现代调查方法（例如CT扫描）和分析（例如使用简约和贝叶斯方法的系统发育分析）。该项目的重点是来自德国南部晚侏罗世石灰岩的喙头类物质，但也将考虑来自其他地方的喙头类头盖骨遗骸的数据。

The Rhynchocephalia are one of the two main lineages of the Lepidosauria. They represent the sister taxon to the Squamata (lizards and snakes), one of the most diverse clades of terrestrial vertebrates today. However, in contrast to squamates, rhynchocephalians are today represented by a single species, Sphenodon punctatus, the tuatara of New Zealand. In contrast, during the Mesozoic, rhynchocephalians were both taxonomically and ecologically diverse, and might have surpassed squamates in this respect, at least up to the Jurassic. The fossil record of rhynchocephalians is dominated by jaws and teeth, so that our interpretations of both rhynchocephalian phylogeny and ecology is largely based on characters of the jaws and teeth. However, recent squamates show that the postcranial skeleton can provide important insights into these aspects. In some exceptional fossil lagerstätten, such as the Late Jurassic lithographic limestones of southern Germany, a rich rhynchocephalian fauna is found, with frequently preserved complete or almost complete postcranial remains. This fauna thus represents a unique opportunity to evaluate the importance of postcranial characters for our understanding of rhynchocephalian ecology, diversity and phylogeny. Thus, in this project, we plan to document the morphological diversity of the postcranial skeleton in rhynchocephalians and investigate the importance of postcranial characters for interpreting the ecology and phylogeny within this group. For this, we will use comparisons with modern squamate osteology and myology and apply modern methods of investigation (e.g. CT-scanning) and analysis (e.g. phylogenetic analysis using both parsimony and Bayesian methods). The project is focused on the rhynchocephalian material from the Late Jurassic limestones of southern Germany, but will also take data from postcranial remains of rhynchocephalians from other localities into account.