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The Function and Evolution of the Syncervical in Ceratopsian Dinosaurs with a Review of Cervical Fusion in Tetrapods

Mobility of the vertebral column is important for many ecological aspects of vertebrates, especially in the cervical series, which connects the head to the main body. Thus, fusion within the cervical series is hypothesized to have ecological and behavioural implications. Fused, anterior cervical vertebrae have evolved independently over 20 times in ecologically disparate amniotes, most commonly in pelagic, ricochetal, and fossorial taxa, suggesting an adaptive function for the ‘syncervical.’ Fusion may help increase out-force during head-lift digging or prevent anteroposteriorly shortened vertebrae from mechanically failing during locomotion, but no hypothesis for syncervical function has been tested. The syncervical of neoceratopsian dinosaurs is hypothesized to support large heads or aid in intraspecific combat. Tests of correlated character evolution within a ceratopsian phylogeny falsify these hypotheses, as the syncervical evolves before large heads and cranial weaponry. Alternative functional hypotheses may involve ancestral burrowing behaviour or unique feeding ecology in early neoceratopsians.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OTU.1807/35700
Date17 July 2013
CreatorsVanBuren, Collin S.
ContributorsEvans, David C.
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
Languageen_ca
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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