Scleromochlus

Scleromochlus (Greek for "hard fulcrum") is an extinct genus of small archosauriform from the Late Triassic period. The genus contains the type and only species Scleromochlus taylori, named by Arthur Smith Woodward in 1907.[1]

Scleromochlus Temporal range: Late Triassic, Carnian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Cast of type specimen NHMUK R3556
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Archosauria
Clade:	Avemetatarsalia (?)
Family:	†Scleromochlidae Huene, 1914
Genus:	†Scleromochlus Woodward, 1907
Species:	†S. taylori
Binomial name
†Scleromochlus taylori Woodward, 1907

Description

Scleromochlus taylori was about 181 millimetres (7.1 in) long, with long hind legs; it may have been capable of four-legged and two-legged locomotion. Studies about its gait suggest that it engaged in kangaroo- or springhare-like plantigrade hopping;[2][3][4] however, a 2020 reassessment of Scleromochlus by Bennett suggested that it was a "sprawling quadrupedal hopper analogous to frogs."[5] If Scleromochlus is indeed related to pterosaurs, this may offer insight as to how the latter evolved, since early pterosaurs also show adaptations for saltatorial locomotion.[6]

Discovery

Its fossils have been found in the Carnian Lossiemouth Sandstone of Scotland. The holotype is BMNH R3556, a partial skeleton preserved as an impression in sandstone; part of the skull and tail are missing.[1]

Classification

Skeletal diagram

A lightly built cursorial animal, its phylogenetic position has been debated; as different analyses have found it to be either the basal-most ornithodiran, the sister-taxon to Pterosauria, or a basal member of Avemetatarsalia that lies outside of Ornithodira. In the phylogenetic analyses conducted by Nesbitt et al. (2017) Scleromochlus was recovered either as a basal member of Dinosauromorpha or as a non-aphanosaurian, non-pterosaur basal avemetatarsalian. However, the authors stressed that scoring Scleromochlus was challenging given the small size and poor preservation of the fossils, and stated that it could not be scored for many of the important characters that optimize near the base of Avemetatarsalia.[7]

In 2020, Bennett interpreted Scleromochlus as possessing certain characteristics, including osteoderms and a crurotarsal morphology of the ankle, which suggested that Scleromochlus was not closely related to ornithodirans. He instead argued for a position of Scleromochlus among the Doswelliidae or elsewhere among basal members of the Archosauriformes.[5]

References

1. Woodward, A.S. (1907). "On a New Dinosaurian Reptile (Scleromochlus Taylori, gen. Et sp. Nov.) from the Trias of Lossiemouth, Elgin". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 63 (1–4): 140–144. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1907.063.01-04.12.
2. Sereno, P.C.; Arcucci, A.B. (1994). "Dinosaurian precursors from the Middle Triassic of Argentina: Marasuchus lilloensis, gen. nov". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 14 (1): 53–73. doi:10.1080/02724634.1994.10011538.
3. Benton, M.J. (1999). "Scleromochlus taylori and the origin of dinosaurs and pterosaurs". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 354 (1388): 1423–1446. doi:10.1098/rstb.1999.0489. JSTOR 57034. PMC 1692658.
4. Witton, M.P. (2013). Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691150611.
5. Bennett, S.C. (2020). "Reassessment of the Triassic archosauriform Scleromochlus taylori: neither runner nor biped, but hopper". PeerJ. 8: e8418. doi:10.7717/peerj.8418. ISSN 2167-8359.
6. Witton, M.P. (2015). "Were early pterosaurs inept terrestrial locomotors?". PeerJ. 3: e1018. doi:10.7717/peerj.1018. PMC 4476129. PMID 26157605.
7. Nesbitt, S.J.; Butler, R.J.; Ezcurra, M.D.; Barrett, P.M.; Stocker, M.R.; Angielczyk, K.D.; Smith, R.M.H.; Sidor, C.A.; Niedźwiedzki, G.; Sennikov, A.G.; Charig, A.J. (2017). "The earliest bird-line archosaurs and the assembly of the dinosaur body plan" (PDF). Nature. 544 (7651): 484–487. doi:10.1038/nature22037. PMID 28405026.