Ariana Paulina Carabajal,
Juliana Sterli, Johannes Müller y André Hilger
Turtles are one
of the least explored clades regarding endocranial anatomy with few available
descriptions of the brain and inner ear of extant representatives. In addition,
the paleoneurology of extinct turtles is poorly known and based on only a few
natural cranial endocasts. The main goal of this study is to provide for the
first time a detailed description of the neuroanatomy of an extinct turtle, the
Late Jurassic Plesiochelys etalloni, including internal carotid circulation,
cranial endocast and inner ear, based on the first digital 3D reconstruction
using micro CT scans. The general shape of the cranial endocast of P. etalloni
is tubular, with poorly marked cephalic and pontine flexures. Anteriorly,
the olfactory bulbs are clearly differentiated suggesting larger bulbs than in
any other described extinct or extant turtle, and indicating a higher capacity
of olfaction in this taxon. The morphology of the inner ear of P. etalloni
is comparable to that of extant turtles and resembles those of slow-moving terrestrial
vertebrates, with markedly low, short and robust semicircular canals, and a
reduced lagena. In P. etalloni the arterial pattern is similar to that
found in extant cryptodires, where all the internal carotid branches are
protected by bone. As the knowledge of paleoneurology in turtles is scarce and
the application of modern techniques such as 3D reconstructions based on CT
scans is almost unexplored in this clade, we hope this paper will trigger
similar investigations of this type in other turtle taxa.
Carabajal AP, Sterli J, Müller J,
Hilger A (2013) Neuroanatomy of the Marine Jurassic Turtle Plesiochelys
etalloni (Testudinata, Plesiochelyidae). PLoS ONE 8(7): e69264.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069264
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