The phylogeny and paleobiology of the early Reptilia
Final Report Abstract
The Emmy Noether junior research group "The evolution and paleobiology of the early Reptilia" resulted in the first comprehensive phylogeny of Paleozoic reptiles, including taxonomic and morphological revisions of early eureptiles and parareptiles along with the discovery and description of several new taxa. In this context, also the application of Bayesian methods for phylogeny reconstruction was investigated in detail. Our phylogenetic results revealed that reptiles originated in the paleo-equatorial regions of the supercontinent Pangaea during the Carboniferous, and reached higher latitudes during the Permian, probably as a result of global warming. Although both para- and eureptiles were affected by the Permo-Triassic exctinction, at least parareptiles retained similar turnover rates across the boundary. Also, the evolutionary innovation of herbivory, while frequent among some taxa, did not increase diversification rates in these clades. Paleobiologically, we were able to show that parareptiles were the first and so far only known Paleozoic amniotes with impedancematching hearing. We also investigated ancient reptile and amniote vision capacities, and employed molecular and bioinformatic methods to recreate ancestral visual pigments (opsin) in the laboratory. Our results revealed that early amniotes had a largely diurnal vision but that subsequent changes in opsin structure, especially in the lineage leading to mammals but also in reptiles, suggest adaptations to nocturnal life habits. Finally, we also used our anatomical data to compare reptiles and synapsids with respect to their developmental plasticity in the formation of the body axis, and showed that synapsids are much more conservative than reptiles in their variability of vertebral counts. Our research was featured in public media such as Spiegel Online and National Geographic, but also in Science and the "Leibniz Journal" of the Leibniz Association. Müller, J. & Bickelmann, C.: Von Genen und Fossilien – paläobiologische Forschung aus dem Molekularlabor. – DFG-Magazin „forschung“ 2011(4): 22-25
Publications
- (2006): The phylogeny of early eureptiles: comparing parsimony and Bayesian approaches in the investigation of a basal fossil clade. – Systematic Biology 55: 503-511
Müller, J. & Reisz, R. R.
- (2007): Impedance-matching hearing in Paleozoic reptiles: evidence of advanced sensory perception at an early stage of amniote evolution. – PLoS ONE 2(9): e889
Müller, J. & Tsuji, L. A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000889) - (2008): A new bolosaurid parareptile, Belebey chengi sp. nov., from the Middle Permian of China and its paleogeographic significance. – Naturwissenschaften 95: 925-929
Müller, J., Li, J.-L. & Reisz, R. R.
- (2009): Assembling the history of the Parareptilia: phylogeny, diversification, and a new definition of the clade. – Fossil Record 12: 71-81
Tsuji, L. A. & Müller, J.
- (2010): Homeotic effects, somitogenesis and the evolution of vertebral numbers in recent and fossil amniotes. – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107:2118- 2123
Müller J., Scheyer T.M., Head J.J., Barrett P.M., Werneburg I., Ericson P.G.P., Pol D. & Sánchez- Villagra M.R.
- (2010): Microleter mckinzieorum gen. et sp. nov. from the Lower Permian of Oklahoma: the basalmost parareptile from Laurasia. – Systematic Palaeontology 8: 245-255
Tsuji, L. A., Müller, J., Reisz, R. R.
- (2011): A new captorhinid reptile, Gansurhinus qingtoushanensis, gen. et sp. nov., from the Permian of China. – Naturwissenschaften 98 (5): 435–441
Reisz, R. R., Liu, J., Li, J.-L. & Müller, J.
- (2011): Amniotes through major biological crises: faunal turnover among parareptiles and the end-Permian mass extinction. – Palaeontology 54: 1117-1137
Ruta, M., Cisneros, J. C., Liebrecht, T., Tsuji, L. A. & Müller, J.
- (2012): Anatomy of Emeroleter levis and the phylogeny of the nycteroleter parareptiles. – Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32: 45-67
Tsuji, L. A., Müller, J. & Reisz, R. R.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2012.626004) - (2012): Functional characterization of the rod visual pigment of the echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), a basal mammal. – Visual Neuroscience 29: 211–217
Bickelmann, C., Morrow, J. M., Müller, J. & Chang, B. S. W.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952523812000223) - (2012): The Future of Codon Models in Studies of Molecular Function: Ancestral Reconstruction, and Clade Models of Functional Divergence – In: Gina M. Cannarozzi & A. Schneider (Eds.): “Codon Evolution – Mechanisms and Models”; Oxford University Press: 145-163
Chang, B. S. W., Du, J., Weadick, C. J., Müller, J., Bickelmann, C., Yu, D. & Morrow, J. J.
