Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Biological Sciences Faculty Research Biological Sciences 2010 Evidence of pachyostosis in the cryptocleidoid plesiosaur Tatenectes laramiensis from the Sundance Formation of Wyoming Hallie P. Street Marshall University F. Robin O’Keefe Marshall University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/bio_sciences_faculty Part of the Animal Sciences Commons, and the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons Recommended Citation Street, H. P., and F. R. O’Keefe. 2010. Evidence of pachyostosis in the cryptocleidoid plesiosaur Tatenectes laramiensis from the Sundance Formation of Wyoming. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30(4):1279–1282. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Biological Sciences at Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Biological Sciences Faculty Research by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. EVIDENCE OF PACHYOSTOSIS IN THE CRYPTOCLEIDOID PLESIOSAUR TATENECTES LARAMIENSIS FROM THE SUNDANCE FORMATION OF WYOMING HALLIE P. STREET and F. ROBIN O'KEEFE; Department of Biological Sciences, Marshall University, One John Marshall Drive, Huntington, West Virginia 25755, U.S.A.,
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[email protected] INTRODUCTION In this paper we present evidence for pachyostosis in the cryptocleidoid plesiosaur Tatenectes laramiensis Knight, 1900 (O'Keefe and Wahl, 2003a). Pachyostosis is not common in plesio- saurs and is particularly rare in non-pliosaurian plesiosaurs, although enlarged gastralia were first recognized in Tatenectes by Wahl (1999). This study aims to investigate the nature of the dispro- portionately large gastralia of Tatenectes m greater depth, based on new material.