Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / Title from PDF file main screen (viewed on Oct. 2, 2009). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Systematics and Evolution, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta." Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

The transition between terrestrial varanoid lizards and aquatic mosasaurs through the intermediate, semi-aquatic aigialosaurs is fully documented. Aigialosaurs are shown to possess a mosaic of mosasaurian (configuration of the skull, jaw and tail) and terrestrial varanoid characters (appendicular skeleton and trunk). / The taxonomic position of the Aigialosauridae within the superfamily Varanoidea is evaluated. Based on character states previously used to define the Varanoidea, neither the specific affinities of aigialosaurs nor the sister-group relationships of earlier members of the terrestrial varanoid assemblage can be securely established. For this reason, the specific character states involved have been reexamined and alternative hypotheses of relationship have been considered.

No description available.

This study has looked at an assemblage of fossilised teeth from Mesozoic marine amniotes from the Kristianstad basin in southern Sweden in order to make an estimate of the ecomorph diversity within said assemblage through looking at the morphology of the teeth. This was done as a pilot study to see if further studies would be able to produce worthwhile results. The assemblage consists largely of isolated tooth crowns, mostly from small- to medium sized mosasaurs such as Clidastes and Eonatator, but also contains larger mosasaurs, as well as a couple of plesiosaurs and one species of a marine crocodile. The analysis was performed on images of teeth using software developed for use in morphometrics. The resulting graphs imply a division into three guilds; the first represented by the short and blunt teeth of the crocodilian, the second by the elongated teeth of the plesiosaurs, and the third by the knife-like teeth of the mosasaurs. Since the mosasaurs overlap to a high degree in tooth shape, but also show quite diversity in size, it is possible the main dividing factor would have been size rather than type of prey. Further studies would be able to get a more accurate image of the ecology of this fauna by increasing the number of specimen in the analysis as well as taking into consideration more factors from other studies of similar taxa, such as jaw sizes, bite marks and gut contents. / Det här arbetet har studerat fossila tänder tillhörande Mesozoiska marina amnioter från Kristianstadsbassängen i södra Sverige, med avsikt att göra en uppskattning av den ekomorfa spridningen inom gruppen genom att studera tändernas form. Detta är enbart en pilotstudie för att se om fortsatta studier kan ge givande resultat. Det studerade materialet är en del av en samling till stor del bestående av enbart lösa tandkronor, mest från små till medelstora mosasaurier, såsom Clidastes och Eonatator, men även från större mosasaurier, så väl som ett par plesiosaurier och en marin krokodil-art. För analysen användes en programvara specifikt utvecklad för morfometri. De resulterande graferna antyder en indelning i tre “gillen”; det första representeras av de korta och trubbiga tänderna tillhörande krokodilen, det andra av de långsmala tänderna hos plesiosaurierna, och det tredje av de knivlika mosasaurietänderna. Eftersom mosasaurierna överlappar till stor grad gällande formen på tänderna, men skiljer sig mycket åt i storlek, så är det troligt att det snarare var storleken på bytesdjuren, och inte vilken typ, som skiljde dem åt. Framtida studier skulle kunna ge en bättre bild av den här faunans ekosystem dels genom att inkludera fler exemplar i analysen, och dels genom att inkludera andra faktorer från studier av liknande taxa, såsom käkstorlek, bitmärken och maginnehåll.