Apachesaurus の個体発生と環境適応の解明:
小型種 Apachesaurus gregorii の大型成体標本（UCMP 27051）を同定し、発生タイミングのズレ（異時性/ヘテロクロニー）および幼体と成体での水生環境の使い分け（個体発生的ニッチ分割）の可能性を提示した。

論文OA
doi.org/10.7717/peer...

So where are the adults? Well, they may have been sitting in front of us all along. I tentatively referred UCMP 27051 to Apachesaurus gregorii based on the abrupt curvature of the temporal LLS toward the squamosal (though not clearly passing onto it) and a narrow cultiform process.

Underdevelopment of the LLS in Apachesaurus has been used to infer that this species may have been "more terrestrial", but read the paper to see why I think this is not the case.

But importantly, the discontinuous cranial LLS present in the type locality specimens (and another small referred specimen 📸 here) of Apachesaurus gregorii may be an indicator of juvenile ontogenetic status.

I was fully on board with the idea that Apachesaurus may actually represent a juvenile of what was at the time called Anaschisma, and to my surprise, I found solid evidence for its validity including a unique configuration of the cranial lateral line sulci, see UCMP 63846 from the type locality.

There has been some back and forth about the ontogenetic status of referred specimens of Apachesaurus because all specimens of this taxon are small-bodied. Histology of small Apachesaurus-like intercentra suggests very convincingly that these are juvenile forms. peerj.com/articles/3183/

With my guilt now acknowledged, let's get on to what I consider the most interesting part of this work: Apachesaurus gregorii.

#temnovember2023 day 4: Apachesaurus And for the last day in North America, we have #Apachesaurus, a small metoposaurid from the late #Triassic #paleoart #sciart #temnospondyl #amphibian #temnobember #metoposaurus