Elsevier Editorial System(tm) for Gondwana Research Manuscript Draft Manuscript Number: GR-D-14-00205R1 Title: Thalassodromeus sebesensis - a new name for an old turtle. Comment on "Thalassodromeus sebesensis, an out of place and out of time Gondwanan tapejarid pterosaur", Grellet-Tinner and Codrea (online July 2014 DOI 10.1016/j.gr.2014.06.002) Article Type: Discussion Corresponding Author: Dr. Gareth Dyke, Corresponding Author's Institution: First Author: Gareth Dyke Order of Authors: Gareth Dyke; Mátyás Vremir; Stephen Brusatte; Gabe Bever; Eric Buffetaut; Sandra Chapman; Zoltán Csiki-Sava; Alexander Kellner; Elizabeth Martin; Darren Naish; Mark Norell; Attila Osi; Felipe Pinheiro; Edina Prondvai; Márton Rabi; Taissa Rodrigues; Lorna Steel; Haiyan Tong; Bruno Vila Nova; Mark Witton Cover Letter 9th JUly 2014 Re: Multi-authored Comment on Grellet-Tinner and Codrea (2014) Dear Editors, Prof Santosh: Following our extensive correspondence over email, please find our submitted Comment on the recent Grellet-Tinner and Codrea (2014) article in GR: "Thalassodromeus sebesensis, an out of place and out of time Gondwanan tapejarid pterosaur", Grellet-Tinner and Codrea (online July 2014 DOI 10.1016/j.gr.2014.06.002) I did not see the Comment and Reply format for submission to the Journal (on this site) so have used the GR Letter submission format; I hope that is ok for review. Yours sincerely Gareth Dyke Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Palaeontology Ocean and Earth Science National Oceanography Centre, Southampton University of Southampton Southampton SO14 3ZH UK Direct tel: +44 (0)23 8023110 email: [email protected] <Double-click here to insert name of Research Group or delete if not required> School of Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, University of Southampton Waterfront Campus, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH UK Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 2011 Fax: +44 (0)23 8059 3059 www. southampton.ac.uk/soes The University of Southampton is a hosting partner of the National Oceanography Centre *Manuscript Click here to view linked References Thalassodromeus sebesensis - a new name for an old turtle. Comment on 1 2 “Thalassodromeus sebesensis, an out of place and out of time Gondwanan tapejarid 3 4 5 pterosaur”, Grellet-Tinner and Codrea (online July 2014 DOI 10.1016/j.gr.2014.06.002) 6 7 8 9 a,b* c d e,j f 10 Gareth Dyke , Mátyás Vremir , Stephen L. Brusatte , G. S. Bever , Eric Buffetaut , Sandra 11 12 Chapmang, Zoltán Csiki-Savah, Alexander Kellneri, Elizabeth Martina, Darren Naisha, Mark 13 14 j k l k m n 15 Norell , Attila Ősi , Felipe L. Pinheiro , Edina Prondvai , Márton Rabi , Taissa Rodrigues , 16 g o p q 17 Lorna Steel , Haiyan Tong , Bruno C. Vila Nova , Mark Witton 18 19 20 21 a 22 Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, 23 24 Southampton, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK 25 26 b 27 MTA-DE “Lendület” Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary 28 29 Zoology and Human Biology, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1., H–4032 Debrecen, 30 31 Hungary 32 33 c 34 Department of Natural Sciences, Transylvanian Museum Society, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 35 36 dSchool of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute, King‟s Buildings, West 37 38 39 Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, UK 40 41 eDepartment of Anatomy, New York Institute of Anatomy College of Osteopathic Medicine, 42 43 44 Old Westbury, NY 11568, USA 45 f 46 Laboratoire de Géologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris 47 48 Cedex 05, France 49 50 g 51 Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 52 53 5BD, UK 54 55 h 56 Laboratory of Paleontology, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, University of Bucharest, 1 N. 57 58 Bălcescu Blvd., 010041 Bucharest, Romania 59 60 61 62 63 64 1 65 iLaboratory of Systematics and Taphonomy of Fossil Vertebrates, Department of Geology 1 2 and Paleontology, Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa 3 4 5 Vista s/n, São Cristóvão, CEP 20940-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil 6 7 jDivision of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, 8 9 10 New York, NY, 10024 USA 11 12 kMTA-ELTE Lendület Dinosaur Research Group, Budapest, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, 1117, 13 14 15 Hungary 16 l 17 Laboratório de Paleobiologia, Universidade Federal do Pampa, Av. Antônio Trilha, 1847, 18 19 São Gabriel, RS, Brazil 20 21 m 22 Institut für Geowissenschaften, University of Tübingen, Hölderlinstraße 12, 72074, 23 24 Tübingen, Germany 25 26 27 n 28 Department of Biology, Agrarian Sciences Center, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, 29 30 Caixa Postal 16, CEP 29500-000, Alegre, ES, Brazil 31 32 33 oPalaeontological Research and Education Centre, Mahasarakham University, Kantarawichai, 34 35 36 Mahasarakham 44150, Thailand 37 38 39 pLaboratório de Paleontologia, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, 40 41 42 Universidade de São Paulo, Av Bandeirantes 3900, CEP 14040-901, Ribeirão Preto, SP, 43 44 Brazil 45 46 47 qSchool of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Building, 48 49 50 Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, PO1 3QL, UK 51 52 53 *Corresponding author, email: [email protected] 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 2 65 1. Introduction 1 2 In a recent Gondwana Research article Grellet-Tinner and Codrea (2014) (hereafter 3 4 5 “GTC”) describe a single bone (UBB ODA-28, collections of Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj 6 7 Napoca, Romania) from the Upper Cretaceous Şard Formation (= middle section of the Sebeş 8 9 10 Formation) (Transylvanian Basin, Romania) as a pterosaur premaxillary cranial crest. They 11 12 assign this fossil to a new species of small pterosaur, Thalassodromeus sebesensis (a name 13 14 15 first coined in a conference abstract published in 2013; Grellet-Tinner et al., 2013). GTC 16 17 build a taxonomic argument on the basis of this single incomplete specimen that posits the 18 19 presence of a major group of pterosaurs hitherto entirely restricted to the Early Cretaceous of 20 21 22 South America - thalassodromines (Kellner and Campos, 2007) or thalassodromids (Witton, 23 24 2009) - in the European Late Cretaceous. GTC note that “this important discovery doubles 25 26 27 the thalassadromine fossil record and demonstrates a 42 million years temporal displacement 28 29 between the Romanian species and its older Aptian Gondwanan congener Thalassodromeus 30 31 32 sethi”. If GTC are correct, this new fossil represents a remarkably unexpected and potentially 33 34 very important discovery that could rewrite aspects of pterosaur evolutionary history. 35 36 We have assembled a large international team who disagree with the arguments 37 38 39 presented by GTC. As we demonstrate, the fossil fragment they describe is misidentified; it 40 41 is, firstly, not from a pterosaur but is clearly a piece of the shell of the turtle Kallokibotion 42 43 44 Nopcsa, 1923 and, secondly, is therefore not the groundbreaking discovery of an 45 46 „anachronistic‟ Gondwanan pterosaur in Europe as claimed. Because ODA-28 is not a 47 48 49 pterosaur, yet alone a Thalassodromeus, GTC‟s conclusions on migration routes and insular 50 51 dwarfism are also unsupported. 52 53 54 55 56 2. ODA-28 is not a pterosaur head crest or even part of a pterosaur 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 3 65 The similarity of ODA-28 to pterosaur fossils is superficial; the GTC specimen 1 2 possesses no apomorphies or other characteristic features of Pterosauria. Most importantly, 3 4 5 the thickness, cross sectional morphology, and asymmetry of the specimen demonstrate that it 6 7 is not a pterosaur head crest, or a pterosaur bone of any kind. Pterodactyloid bones, including 8 9 10 the head crests and bones of thalassodromines, are characterised by millimetre-thick bone 11 12 walls separated by networks of fine trabeculae (e.g. de Ricqlès et al., 2000, Sayão, 2003, 13 14 15 Steel et al., 2005, Fig, 4; Steel, 2008). In contrast, broken margins of ODA-28 exhibit two 16 17 layers of compact bone separated by a diploë (a a spongy layer), not thin bone separated by 18 19 trabeculae. In ODA-28 the two compact bone layers are asymmetrical, with one layer thicker 20 21 22 than the other. Pterosaur cranial crests, on the other hand, are medially positioned structures 23 24 with symmetrical bone thickness on the left and right sides (Kellner and Campos, 2002; 25 26 27 Martill and Naish, 2006). 28 29 The anatomy of ODA-28 is distinctly different from all known pterosaur head crests. 30 31 32 The „fossae‟ meant to link ODA-28 to Thalassodromeus sethi are morphologically and 33 34 topographically unlike the fenestrae at the base of Thalassodromeus headcrests, which are 35 36 elongate, located posterior to the orbit (and thus to the nasoantorbital fenestra), and 37 38 39 perforated (Kellner and Campos, 2007, Fig. 10). Alleged anatomical features of the 40 41 specimen, including a nasal process, anterodorsal margin of the nasoantorbital fenestra, and 42 43 44 „finger-like projections‟ from alleged crest margins, are morphologically irreconcilable with 45 46 thalassodromines and other pterosaur crania and are, as we will demonstrate below, 47 48 49 consistent with identification of this material as part of a turtle. 50 51 Even if ODA-28 unexpectedly represents a histologically and morphologically bizarre 52 53 pterosaurian bone, it does not exhibit any clear similarities with the pterosaur 54 55 56 Thalassodromeus. For example, the irregular „ventral‟ margin of ODA-28 compares poorly 57 58 with the smooth, sweeping nasoantorbital margin of Thalassodromeus and other 59 60 61 62 63 64 4 65 monofenestratan pterosaurs (Martill and Naish, 2006, Kellner and Campos, 2007).