A diadectid skin impression and its implications for the evolutionary origin
Data files
Mar 26, 2024 version files 4.87 MB
-
README.md
-
vars_01.txt
Abstract
Corneous skin appendages are common and diverse in crown-group amniotes but are also present in some modern amphibians. This raises the still unresolved question of whether the ability to form corneous skin appendages is an apomorphy of a common ancestor of amphibians and amniotes or evolved independently in both groups. So far, there is no palaeontological contribution to the issue due to the lack of keratin soft tissue preservation in Palaeozoic anamniotes. New data is provided by a recently discovered ichnofossil specimen from the early Permian of Poland that shows monospecific tetrapod footprints associated with a partial scaly body impression. The traces can be unambiguously attributed to diadectids and are interpreted as the globally first evidence of horned scales in tetrapods close to the origin of amniotes. Taking hitherto little-noticed scaly skin impressions of lepospondyl stem amniotes from the early Permian of Germany into account, the possibility has to be considered that the evolutionary origin of epidermal scales deeply roots among anamniotes.
README: A diadectid skin impression and its implications for the evolutionary origin
The data structured into columns represent a point cloud, carrying spatial information and data about the scanned slab surface. The first three columns contain information about the location of the points in virtual space (local coordinate space) and within the X, Y, and Z axes. The following columns describe the color component of the point cloud, representing the actual appearance of the slab.