Articles | Volume 21, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-21-109-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-21-109-2018
Research article
 | 
03 Apr 2018
Research article |  | 03 Apr 2018

A case study of developmental palaeontology in Stereosternum tumidum (Mesosauridae, Parareptilia)

Constanze Bickelmann and Linda A. Tsuji

Cited articles

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Bickelmann, C., Mitgutsch, C., Richardson, M. K., de Bakker, M. A. G., Jiménez, R., and Sánchez-Villagra, M. R.: Transcriptional heterochrony in talpid mole autopods, EvoDevo, 3, 16, 2012. 
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Short summary
Mesosaurs were reptiles that lived around 280 mya. They were the first land reptile group to return to the water. Study of a fossil from the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin reveals a previously unobserved baby skeleton near the adult. This small skeleton can tell us about how these creatures grew; the lower segment of the hind limb is already proportionally larger than the upper hind limb and the lower and upper forelimbs. This may be because young mesosaurs needed to swim right from birth.
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