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The Enamel Microstructure of Manidens Condorensis: New Hypotheses on the Ancestral State and Evolution of Enamel in Ornithischia

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The Enamel Microstructure of Manidens Condorensis: New Hypotheses on the Ancestral State and Evolution of Enamel in Ornithischia The enamel microstructure of Manidens condorensis: New hypotheses on the ancestral state and evolution of enamel in Ornithischia MARCOS G. BECERRA and DIEGO POL Becerra, M.G. and Pol, D. 2020. The enamel microstructure of Manidens condorensis: New hypotheses on the ancestral state and evolution of enamel in Ornithischia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 65 (1): 59–70. Previous studies on enamel microstructure in Ornithischia have focused on derived lineages of this clade based on species from the northern hemisphere. Here we describe the enamel microstructure of Manidens condorensis from the late Early Jurassic of Argentina that belongs to Heterodontosauridae (interpreted as the basal-most clade of Ornithischia). Enamel microstructure in the cheek teeth lacks a basal unit layer, presents incipient divergent crystallite as the dominant enamel type and parallel crystallite enamel type (with or without incrementing lines). Enamel of maxillary and dentary teeth differs from each other in enamel distribution (asymmetric vs. symmetric), structure (presence vs. absence of tubules, and less vs. more abundant parallel crystallite enamel with incrementing lines) and ordering (regular ordering of enamel types vs. in patches). The enamel microstructure of Manidens is the simplest of all known Ornithischia, and is more similar to that of the sauropodomorph Plateosaurus than to the one reported for the basal theropod Coelophysis. Similarities within Ornithischia are present with pachycephalosaurids and, to a lesser extent, with ankylosaurs. Phylogenetic optimization of enamel characters in Ornithischia allows the inference of new ancestral states for the internal nodes of the major lineages and to highlight evolutionary transformations: (i) absence of a basal unit layer and presence of parallel crystallite and incipient divergent columnar enamel as the ancestral state for Ornithischia; (ii) the shared presence of incipient divergent columnar units or poorly developed divergent columnar enamel in Pachycephalosauridae and Thyreophora represents a retention of the plesiomorphic ornithischian condition; (iii) the wavy enamel of Dryomorpha evolved from the ancestral incipient divergent columnar units present in Ornithopoda and; (iv) enamel thickness and asymmetry has independently evolved at least four times in Ornithischia. Key words: Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Heterodontosauridae, Manidens, enamel microstructure, evolution, Jurassic, Argentina. Marcos G. Becerra [[email protected]] and Diego Pol [[email protected]], Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET); Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, Fontana 140, Trelew, Chubut U9100GYO, Argentina. Received 27 July 2019, accepted 4 November 2019, available online 26 February 2020. Copyright © 2020 M.G. Becerra and D. Pol. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (for details please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unre- stricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Later works supported results of Sander (1999) in Dinosauria: Introduction (i) “schmelzmuster” (i.e., the three-dimensional arrangement Studies of non-prismatic enamel in reptilians through Scan- of all enamel types and major discontinuities characterizing ning Electron Microscope allowed the characterization of the enamel of a tooth crown) was recovered as synapomor- its micromorphology and organization in a functional, phy- phic at a family level of many clades (e.g., Hadrosauridae, logenetic and evolutionary context (Sander 1999, 2000). In Neoceratopsia, Ankylosauria); and (ii) functional restric- particular, the enamel morphology in Dinosauria was ap- tions modelled similar “schmelzmuster” in phylogenetically proached by several authors (Sander 1999, 2000; Hwang distant species but with similar diets/ecology and teeth mor- 2005, 2010, 2011; Stokosa 2005; Heckert and Miller-Camp phology. Other conclusions of successive works of Hwang 2013). Based on an extensive sampling and comparisons, (2005, 2010, 2011) on Dinosauria indicated that complexity Hwang (2005) aimed to test phylogenetically if similarities in enamel microstructure was correlated mostly with the in enamel morphology of major dinosaur taxa reflect com- complexity of the tooth crown and not with its phylogenetic mon ancestry or functional/ecomorphological convergences. position, and that the degree of homoplasy in enamel mor- Acta Palaeontol. Pol. 65 (1): 59–70, 2020 https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00658.2019 60 ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA 65 (1), 2020 phology of Theropoda was much higher than in Ornithischia. A B C Current knowledge of enamel morphology in Ornithischia 1 1 1 was provided by Sander (1999, 2000) and Hwang (2005, 2010, 2011). This is based on a broad sampling of derived taxa belonging to Stegosauria, Ankylosauridae, Nodosauri- dae, Pachy cephalosauridae, Cera topsia, Iguanodontia, and Hadro sauridae, lineages whose origin is not earlier than the Bajo cian or more recent times (e.g., Spencer 2013). This sam- pling reunites species from the Northern Hemisphere (USA, Canada, Mongolia, England) and mostly Cretaceous (except- ing Stegosaurus, Dryosaurus, and Camptosaurus, from the D E F Kimmeridgian of USA). Hwang (2011) noted this sampling 1 1 1 bias and highlighted the importance of acquiring informa- tion of early ornithischians to infer the ancestral state of this clade, the polarity of change in enamel microstructure, and the historical patterns that explain shared schmelzmuster between distant lineages. Manidens condorensis, a heterodontosaurid ornithis- chian represented by skull, postcranial remains and iso- lated teeth, was found in the latest Early Jurassic Cañadón Asfalto Formation (Central Patagonia, Argentina) (Pol et al. 2011; Becerra et al. 2018). Heterodontosauridae are phylo- genetically and chronologically the first diversification of A 2 B2 C2 Ornithischia, predating the diversification of Genasauria (Thyreophora + Neornithischia). The availability of many isolated teeth referred to Manidens condorensis allows studying the enamel microstructure in a representative of the most basal ornithischian clade (Butler et al. 2008b). We additionally discuss the new information within a phyloge- netic framework to reconstruct major evolutionary changes in the enamel microstructure in Ornithischia. D2 E 2 F2 Institutional abbreviations.—MPEF-PV, Museo Paleonto- lógico Egidio Feruglio, colección de Paleontología de Verte- brados, Trelew, Chubut, Argentina. Other abbreviations.—BUL, basal unit layer; DCE, diver- gent columnar enamel; DCU, divergent columnar units; EDJ, enamel-dentine junction; EES, external enamel sur- face; IDCE, incipient divergent colum nar enamel; IDCU, Fig. 1. Sectioned isolated teeth of a basal ornithischian Manidens condoren- incipient divergent columnar units; IL, incrementing lines; sis Pol, Rauhut, and Becerra, 2011 from Cañadón Asfalto Formation (Queso Rallado locality, late Toarcian), Chubut province, Argentina. A. MPEF-PV MC, mesial crest limiting the mesial cavity. 3821. B. MPEF-PV 10823. C. MPEF-PV 10864. D. MPEF-PV 10863. E. MPEF-PV 10862. F. MPEF-PV 10865. In labial (A–D) and lingual (E, F) views. Photographs (A1–F1), explanatory drawings of cross-section Material and methods (transversal section) (A2, D2), longitudinal section (B2, E2), and tangential section (C2, F2). Sections as defined by Sander (1999). Scale bars 1 mm. The following isolated teeth morphologically referred to (maxillary and dentary teeth), the presence of a mesial cavity Manidens were sectioned: dentary teeth MPEF-PV 10862, (maxillary and dentary teeth excepting MPEF-PV 10823), 10863 and 10865; maxillary teeth MPEF-PV 3821, 10823 and and the variation of these features within both tooth rows al- 10864 (Fig. 1A1–F1). Tooth morphology, as described by Pol low relating all teeth to a mid-posterior position of their cor- et al. (2011), and Becerra et al. (2014, 2018), allows relating responding tooth rows (Becerra et al. 2014, 2018). However, each isolated tooth to either the maxillary or dentary tooth the degree of damage of these teeth precludes a more accurate rows (see SOM, Supplementary Online Material available inference of their possible position, and thus the following at http://app.pan.pl/SOM/app65-Becerra_Pol_SOM.pdf). In enamel description, although based in mid-posterior teeth, addition, the degree of development of the cingular edges is generalized to each dentition. All the sectioned specimens (maxillary teeth), the height/width proportion of each tooth are housed at the collection of the Museo Paleontológico BECERRA AND POL—ENAMEL MICROSTRUCTURE OF A BASAL ORNITHISCHIAN 61 Egidio Feruglio (Trelew, Argentina). Sectioning and SEM scratches in the studied area are not related to a planar oc- imaging followed the protocol of Sander (1999). No sput- clusal wear surface, are distant to the crown edge, and in tercoating with gold was needed. Three sectioning planes some cases their orientation seems to be mainly related to (longitudinal, transversal and tangential) were conducted a combination of the hypothetic direction of the jaw motion to assess the three-dimensional structure and orientation of (i.e., orthal; Becerra et al. 2014, 2018) and the heterogeneity enamel crystallites (Fig. 1A2–F2). The ornamentation of the of the tooth surface (e.g., the paracingular fossa, on the sides external enamel surface (EES) was explored in the cleaned of the central and secondary
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