40-607: Baryonychinae is an extinct clade or subfamily of spinosaurids from the Early Cretaceous ( Valanginian - Albian ) of Britain , Portugal , and Niger . The clade was named by Charig & Milner in 1986 and defined by Sereno et al . in 1998 and Holtz et al. in 2004 as all taxa more closely related to Baryonyx walkeri than to Spinosaurus aegyptiacus . Baryonychines were large, bipedal predators with elongated, crocodile-like skulls and lower jaw tips fanning out into rosettes bearing conical, often unserrated, teeth, and
80-525: A clade (from Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos) 'branch'), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group , is a grouping of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree . In the taxonomical literature, sometimes the Latin form cladus (plural cladi ) is used rather than the English form. Clades are
120-551: A crocodilian . A second species, Suchosaurus girardi , was named in 1897 by Henri-Émile Sauvage from the Papo Seco Formation of Portugal. It was not until the description of Baryonyx in 1986 that these remains were identified as spinosaurid teeth and Suchosaurus was placed in the Spinosauridae . The second described representative of the subfamily was unearthed in 1983 by fossil collector William John Walker, within
160-479: A "ladder", with supposedly more "advanced" organisms at the top. Taxonomists have increasingly worked to make the taxonomic system reflect evolution. When it comes to naming , this principle is not always compatible with the traditional rank-based nomenclature (in which only taxa associated with a rank can be named) because not enough ranks exist to name a long series of nested clades. For these and other reasons, phylogenetic nomenclature has been developed; it
200-623: A clade can be described based on two different reference points, crown age and stem age. The crown age of a clade refers to the age of the most recent common ancestor of all of the species in the clade. The stem age of a clade refers to the time that the ancestral lineage of the clade diverged from its sister clade. A clade's stem age is either the same as or older than its crown age. Ages of clades cannot be directly observed. They are inferred, either from stratigraphy of fossils , or from molecular clock estimates. Viruses , and particularly RNA viruses form clades. These are useful in tracking
240-580: A distinct premaxillary notch . They possessed robust forelimbs supporting three-fingered hands with an enlarged first digit claw, to which the subfamily name indirectly refers. Members of this group, unlike the more derived Spinosaurinae , sported only low sails or none at all. In 1820, paleontologist Gideon Mantell discovered numerous fossil teeth from the Wadhurst Clay Formation of Britain. These were in 1841 named Suchosaurus cultridens by paleontologist Richard Owen , and were identified as
280-513: A new genus and species of baryonychine, Protathlitis cinctorrensis , based on a partial skeleton, recovered from the Arcillas de Morella Formation of Castellón , Spain. Numerous undescribed specimens have been found as well, such as XMDFEC V0010, described in 2010 by Hone, Xu and Wang; a theropod tooth from the Majiacun Formation of China dated to ~86-85 million years ago. They interpreted
320-422: A revised taxonomy based on a concept strongly resembling clades, although the term clade itself would not be coined until 1957 by his grandson, Julian Huxley . German biologist Emil Hans Willi Hennig (1913–1976) is considered to be the founder of cladistics . He proposed a classification system that represented repeated branchings of the family tree, as opposed to the previous systems, which put organisms on
360-484: A struggling slippery animal within the jaws and down the throat; rather than the serrated teeth in most other theropods which are generalized for cutting and ripping flesh. Vullo et al, 2016 likened the cranial evolution and adaptations to piscivory in spinosaurids to those of the Muraenesocidae , a modern family of predatory eels with a similarly evolved skull. Baryonyx as one of the most complete representatives of
400-429: A suffix added should be e.g. "dracohortian". A clade is by definition monophyletic , meaning that it contains one ancestor which can be an organism, a population, or a species and all its descendants. The ancestor can be known or unknown; any and all members of a clade can be extant or extinct. The science that tries to reconstruct phylogenetic trees and thus discover clades is called phylogenetics or cladistics ,
440-692: Is Protathlitis cinctorrensis , known from a partial skeleton. It was a basal member of the Baryonychinae . Its discovery, as well as those of the spinosaurids Camarillasaurus , Iberospinus , Riojavenatrix , and the contemporary Vallibonavenatrix shows that the Iberian Peninsula held a diverse assemblage of spinosaurids during the Early Cretaceous. The holotype remains, the maxillary fragment 8ANA-109 and caudal vertebrae 3ANA83, 4ANA43, 4ANA69, 4ANA76, and 5ANA78, were recovered from
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#1732847495342480-499: Is also used with a similar meaning in other fields besides biology, such as historical linguistics ; see Cladistics § In disciplines other than biology . The term "clade" was coined in 1957 by the biologist Julian Huxley to refer to the result of cladogenesis , the evolutionary splitting of a parent species into two distinct species, a concept Huxley borrowed from Bernhard Rensch . Many commonly named groups – rodents and insects , for example – are clades because, in each case,
520-471: Is in turn included in the mammal, vertebrate and animal clades. The idea of a clade did not exist in pre- Darwinian Linnaean taxonomy , which was based by necessity only on internal or external morphological similarities between organisms. Many of the better known animal groups in Linnaeus's original Systema Naturae (mostly vertebrate groups) do represent clades. The phenomenon of convergent evolution
560-515: Is responsible for many cases of misleading similarities in the morphology of groups that evolved from different lineages. With the increasing realization in the first half of the 19th century that species had changed and split through the ages, classification increasingly came to be seen as branches on the evolutionary tree of life . The publication of Darwin's theory of evolution in 1859 gave this view increasing weight. In 1876 Thomas Henry Huxley , an early advocate of evolutionary theory, proposed
600-489: Is still controversial. As an example, see the full current classification of Anas platyrhynchos (the mallard duck) with 40 clades from Eukaryota down by following this Wikispecies link and clicking on "Expand". The name of a clade is conventionally a plural, where the singular refers to each member individually. A unique exception is the reptile clade Dracohors , which was made by haplology from Latin "draco" and "cohors", i.e. "the dragon cohort "; its form with
640-524: The Smokejacks Pit , Weald Clay Formation , Surrey, England. This initiated the involvement of the Natural History Museum of London , discovering a 65% complete skeleton: NHMUK VP R9951. In 1986, the specimen was published and described by Alan J. Charig and Angela C. Milner as Baryonyx walkeri , with a more detailed monograph published in 1997. Teeth, hand bones, and vertebrae attributed to
680-563: The ANA site of the Arcillas de Morella Formation, which was discovered in 1998 and remained unexplored until 2002. A tooth, 4ANA-11, possibly from the left mandible or right maxilla, was also referred. The remains were described as a new genus and species of spinosaurid in 2023, Protathlitis cinctorrensis . The genus name, " Protathlitis ", is Greek for "champion", and is dedicated to the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League won by Villareal C.F. and in light of
720-662: The El Castellar Formation, Tenadas del Jabali, and from Mas de Curolles. Even though baryonychines were on average smaller than the more advanced spinosaurines, they were still decently large compared to theropods in general. The smallest members, Ceratosuchops and Riparovenator , are estimated at 8–9 m (26–29 ft) and ~1.4-2 tons, while the largest member, Suchomimus , is estimated to measure 9.5–11 m (31 –36 ft) in length and 3–4.7 tons in weight. Members of this family, like other spinosaurids, sported robust forelimbs with large, three-clawed hands. However, unlike
760-634: The baryonychines Suchomimus and Baryonyx have been included in phylogenetic analyses, nearly always finding them to be sister genera in Baryonychinae, such as in the analysis performed by Arden et al. in 2018, shown below. Praia das Aguncheiras taxon Eumeralla taxon Gara Samani taxon In 2021, Chris Barker, Hone, Darren Naish , Andrea Cau, Lockwood, Foster, Clarkin, Schneider, and Gostling described two new spinosaurid species, Ceratosuchops inferodios and Riparovenator milnerae , and placed them well-supportedly in Baryonychinae. They placed them within
800-461: The basalmost member the Baryonychinae. Their results are shown in the cladogram below: Protathlitis [REDACTED] Baryonyx [REDACTED] Protathlitis hails from the Arcillas de Morella Formation , which has been dated to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous period , between 129.4 and 125 million years ago. It coexisted in this environment with other dinosaurs including
840-434: The club's centenary in 2023. The specific name, " cinctorrensis ", honors Cinctorres , the town where the remains were discovered. In 2024, Montealegre, Castillo-Visa & Sellés tentatively assigned specimen IPS919, a nearly complete tooth including a partial root from the Arcillas de Morella Formation, to cf. Protathlitis . Santos-Cubedo et al. (2023) performed a phylogenetic analysis , placing Protathlitis as
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#1732847495342880-728: The dentary behind the terminal rosette and deeply-keeled anterior dorsal vertebrae." By 2002, the conclusion was that the subfamily contained the genera Baryonyx , Cristatusaurus , Suchomimus , and Suchosaurus . The clade was phylogenetically defined by Holtz et al. as all taxa more closely related to Baryonyx walkeri than to Spinosaurus aegyptiacus . In the 2012 description of Ichthyovenator , Allain et al. found it to belong to this subfamily, although almost all subsequent studies have found otherwise, placing it in Spinosaurinae . Up until 2021, with Cristatusaurus and Suchosaurus being considered too incomplete and dubious, only
920-465: The front snout being solid bone formed by the premaxillae and maxillae . The tips of the premaxillae were expanded into a " terminal rosette " holding enlarged, recurved teeth. Behind these expansions, baryonychines featured a subnarial gap complex where dentary teeth fit into, and, further posterior, a dentary gap that the large anteriormost maxillary teeth indented. These animals also bore reduced, narrow premaxillary crests. The subfamily Baryonychinae
960-451: The fundamental unit of cladistics , a modern approach to taxonomy adopted by most biological fields. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population , or a species ( extinct or extant ). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed monophyletic (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over
1000-402: The genus were later discovered in 1998 and 2004. The same year, Spinosaurinae and Baryonychinae were cladistically defined by Holtz and colleagues. In 1973, paleontologist Philippe Taquet discovered specimen MNHN GDF 266 consisting of two premaxillae, a partial maxilla, and a dentary, along with several similar remains from Gadoufaoua , Elrhaz Formation , Niger. They were in 1998 described as
1040-546: The group consists of a common ancestor with all its descendant branches. Rodents, for example, are a branch of mammals that split off after the end of the period when the clade Dinosauria stopped being the dominant terrestrial vertebrates 66 million years ago. The original population and all its descendants are a clade. The rodent clade corresponds to the order Rodentia, and insects to the class Insecta. These clades include smaller clades, such as chipmunk or ant , each of which consists of even smaller clades. The clade "rodent"
1080-470: The group shows evidence of a generalist behavior. One recorded instance is the holotype of Baryonyx found with both fish as well as a juvenile iguanodontid contents within the stomach region. Another instance is pointed out by a 2016 study by the Belgian palaeontologist Christophe Hendrickx and colleagues. They found that adult spinosaurs could displace their mandibular rami (halves of the lower jaw) sideways when
1120-462: The holotype and paratypes of Cristatusaurus lapparenti , although after several inconclusive debates on whether or not the specimen represents the then newly described Baryonyx . In 1997, Paul Sereno and colleagues discovered a ~67% complete skeleton, MNN GDF500, in Gadoufaoua . The next year, Sereno et al. described the specimen as the new baryonychine Suchomimus tenerensis . The species
1160-706: The jaw was depressed, which allowed the pharynx (opening that connects the mouth to the oesophagus) to be widened. This jaw-articulation is similar to that seen in pterosaurs and living pelicans, and would likewise have allowed spinosaurids to swallow large prey such as fish and other animals. They also reported that the possible Portuguese Iberospinus (formerly seen as Baryonyx ) fossils were found associated with isolated Iguanodon teeth, and listed it along with other such associations as support for opportunistic feeding behaviour in spinosaurs. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Clade In biological phylogenetics ,
1200-590: The last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not monophyletic . Some of the relationships between organisms that the molecular biology arm of cladistics has revealed include that fungi are closer relatives to animals than they are to plants, archaea are now considered different from bacteria , and multicellular organisms may have evolved from archaea. The term "clade"
1240-518: The latter term coined by Ernst Mayr (1965), derived from "clade". The results of phylogenetic/cladistic analyses are tree-shaped diagrams called cladograms ; they, and all their branches, are phylogenetic hypotheses. Three methods of defining clades are featured in phylogenetic nomenclature : node-, stem-, and apomorphy-based (see Phylogenetic nomenclature§Phylogenetic definitions of clade names for detailed definitions). The relationship between clades can be described in several ways: The age of
Baryonychinae - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-546: The more derived spinosaurines, these animals possessed small sails, as in Suchomimus , Riparovenator , and Ceratosuchops (for the latter two, sails were assumed judging by their phylogenetic position); some with only the vertebrae of the sacral region being elongated, or none at all, as in Baryonyx . Like most other spinosaurids, baryonychines had a very elongated skull compared to other theropods. Furthermore, even in comparison to
1320-966: The newly created tribe Ceratosuchopsini alongside Suchomimus . Barker et al. diagnosed three autapomorphies to distinguish the clade: " 1. postorbital facet of frontal dorsoventrally thick (height more than 40% of length) and excavated by a deep, longitudinal slot; 2. well-defined and strongly curved anterior margins of supratemporal fossa; 3. occipital surface of the basisphenoid collateral oval scars excavated." Members of this clade range in length from 7.7 to 9.5 m (25.3 to 31 ft). The results of their Bayesian analysis appear below: Megalosauridae Vallibonavenatrix "Spinosaurus B" (=?cf. Sigilmassasaurus / Spinosaurus sp.) MSNM-V4047 (=?cf. Sigilmassasaurus / Spinosaurus sp.) FSAC-KK11888 ( Spinosaurus sp.) Baryonychine teeth are small and recurved with little to no serrations, resembling those of crocodiles. These are considered adaptations for piscivory, as numerous recurved teeth aid in holding
1360-406: The newly described Cristatusaurus was agreed to be very closely related to, if not identical to, Baryonyx by Charig & Milner, 1986 & 1997, Sereno, 1998, and Rauhut, 2003. Later in 1998, Sereno et al. described the genus Suchomimus , and placed it in Baryonychinae along with Baryonyx . They defined the clade's distinguishing characteristics as "numerous small-sized, serrated teeth in
1400-410: The spinosaurines their skulls were long. Perhaps the most proportionally-lengthened skull belongs to Suchomimus . In its very crocodilian skull, there is little to no concavity or convexity from the front (premaxillae) to the back (parietals) of the skull, unlike in spinosaurines and most other theropods. Baryonychines possess reduced antorbital fenestrae in comparison to other theropods, with most of
1440-583: The spread of viral infections . HIV , for example, has clades called subtypes, which vary in geographical prevalence. HIV subtype (clade) B, for example is predominant in Europe, the Americas and Japan, whereas subtype A is more common in east Africa. Protathlitis Protathlitis (meaning "champion") is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous ( Barremian ) Arcillas de Morella Formation of Castellón , Spain. The type and only species
1480-571: The tooth as belonging to a probable baryonychine, which would expand the temporal range of Baryonychinae, and Megalosauroidea as a whole, well into the Late Cretaceous . However, this tooth lacks spinosaurid synapomorphies. Other undescribed specimens include UT-JAW2 from Libya and various remains from Spain, such as Baryonychinae indet. from Vallipón, Castellote, Spain, LAD0-2 from Spain CMP-2 from Cantera del Mas de la Parreta 1, from Castilla y Leon, from
1520-500: The two new genera Ceratosuchops inferodios and Riparovenator milnerae . The study defined a new subclade within Baryonychinae: Ceratosuchopsini , defined as all taxa more closely related to Ceratosuchops inferodios than to Baryonyx walkeri . According to the performed analysis and clade definition, the group contains Ceratosuchops , Riparovenator , and Suchomimus . In 2023, Santos-Cubedo et al. described
1560-521: Was also the subject of synonymy disputes over Cristatusaurus and Baryonyx throughout the 1990s and 2000s. From 2013 to 2020, several spinosaurid fragments were discovered from the Wessex Formation in Britain. In 2021, Barker et al. described these specimens, IWCMS 2014.95.5, IWCMS 2021.30, IWCMS 2014.95.1-3, IWCMS 2014.95.4, IWCMS 2014.95.6, IWCMS 2014.96.1, 2; 2020.448.1, 2, and IWCMS 2014.96.3, as
1600-415: Was first implicitly named in 1986 by Alan J. Charig and Angela Milner when they named the family "Baryonychidae" to include Baryonyx . Those who name families are considered the nominal authors of the subfamilies also. The family Baryonychidae was invalidated when Baryonyx was found to be a spinosaurid. Milner stated that it was likely that Suchosaurus belonged to this subfamily as well. In 1998,
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