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Move over “Jurassic Park,” the “Triassic Circus” is thundering into town in a new Special Issue of The Anatomical Record

2024; Wiley; Volume: 307; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/ar.25409

1932-8494

Jeffrey T. Laitman, Heather F. Smith,

Anatomy and Medical Technology

When we were kids (longer ago for some of us than others!), and visited our nearest natural history museum, the first items we all ran to see were the ever-toothy T-rex and the ponderous-looking brontosaurus (except for the three odd kids who went to see the tree exhibit and the one who stared at the butterfly room; they are probably Fortune500 Company CEOs now). And who among us did not have a collection of plastic or stuffed dinos in their treasure box? Co-author JL's granddaughters have arranged their dinos by colors. "Pop," says the eldest, "the toothy ones are pink, the tubby ones puple, and ones with horn-noses green." "But, sweetheart, they actually all didn't live at the same time," answered the aging oracle trying to educate, "maybe you should group them a little differently? How about this way…" "No, pinks here, puples there, and greens over there. That's how it goes, see? And put the big toothies up front, they're the bests!" "Yes, sweetheart. That's fine." You soon learn that one's granddaughters are always right! Like JL's granddaughters, most of us have been ever-fascinated by dinosaurs and their ilk, particularly the super-dinos. Our collective fascination with ferocious tyrannosaurs, massive sauropods (the clade of saurischian dinosaurs exemplified by Marsh's Brontosaurus, Marsh, 1879), and indomitable ceratopsians, among others, have mesmerized the public. Indeed, in arguably the second tsunami of dinosaur fascination to hit the public (the first being the great awakening fostered by the original dinosaur finds in the western United States and subsequent intense arguments of the late 19th century; see Laitman, 2009; Hellman, 2007), the Jurassic Park movie franchise kindled a stampede of new fascination. While always good for education (and the toy industry!), Jurassic Park was heavier on neat graphics and fascination than it was on accuracy. For example, the beloved Tyrannosaurus rex did not munch around in the Jurassic at all, but was an inhabitant of the later part of the Cretaceous period, some 70 million years after the Jurassic ended! Similarly, while some ceratopsians (the horned dudes) emerged in the Jurassic, the ceratopsians that battled T-rex were also inhabitants of the latter part of the Cretaceous. Apparently, the title "Cretaceous" Park did not resonate as well with movie producers as did "Jurassic" Park so a little (i.e., millions of years) of re-arrangements took place for poetic license. So much for scientific precision! While the Jurassic period was, of course, a remarkable time in Earth's (and Hollywood's) history, the preceding Triassic period was a true circus of organismal magnificence. Beginning some 251+ million years ago at the end of the Permian period of the Paleozoic Era, due to the Permian–Triassic extinction event (aka, the End-Permian Extinction, EPE, also called the "mother of all extinctions"; see Erwin, 2006), the Triassic lasted roughly some 50.5 million years and ushered in the Mesozoic Era. As the Triassic unfolded, and life forms rebounded, three overall types of organisms can be found: those that survived the event, groups that would expand and flourish in the Triassic, and those that went forth and populated the following Mesozoic and even beyond. What an incredible unfolding of tetrapod evolution occurred, with the appearance and diversification of species that gave rise to many lineages that exist today! This extraordinary cornucopia of bio-organisms—from those that gave rise to birds, crocodiles, testudines, lizards, and mammals—are detailed in this month's Special Issue of The Anatomical Record, "The Dawn of an Era: New Contributions on Comparative and Functional Anatomy of Triassic Tetrapods" (Pinheiro et al., 2024). While some of the species put under the mega-microscope in this Special Issue have appeared in recent systemic/lineage-related issues of our journal (see, e.g., those focused on dinosaur anatomy and evolution: Dodson, 2009; Fiorillo et al., 2023; Hedrick & Dodson, 2020; Laitman, 2009; Laitman & Albertine, 2009; Laitman & Albertine, 2020; Laitman & Smith, 2023; crocodilians and their relatives: Holliday & Schachner, 2022; Laitman & Smith, 2022; or turtle evolution: Sterli & Vlachos, 2023; Smith & Laitman, 2023), this is the first of our issues to view the plethora of varied species within a period of the Earth's history together under one geologic tent. The collective view of this tetrapod menagerie affords an unparalleled experience of the vibrancy and diversity of organismal life in the Triassic. The Special Issue has been lovingly, meticulously, and energetically, guest edited by a trio of hearty Brazilian paleontologists/comparative anatomists: Felipe L. Pinheiro of the Laboratório de Paleobiologia, Universidade Federal do Pampa, São Gabriel, Brazil, and Flávio A. Pretto and Leonardo Kerber, both from Centro de Paolo à Pesquisa Paleontologica da Quarta Colônia, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (CAPPA/UFSM), São João do Polêsine, Brazil (Figures 1-3, our intrepid Guest Editors teaching about, and unearthing, tetrapods of the Triassic period). While a portion of the contributions derived from presentations at the first "Triassic: The Dawn of an Era" Symposium held at the recent XIIth Brazilian Symposium in Vertebrate Paleontology in Santa Maria, the guest editors dug deeper to attract a wide range of new and dynamic finds to highlight. Indeed, the Special Issue presents reports on a remarkable nine novel taxa, two of which, Kwatisuchus and Paratraversodon, are already being heralded in the Brazilian media, for example, The National Journal, as we go to press! We are very proud of our Brazilian trio who originally stem from varied parts of the South American giant (Pinheiro from the northeast, Pretto and Kerber from southern states), yet all have since their early days had a fascination with varied fossils and from various times of the Earth's history. The Anatomical Record is particularly appreciative of Leonardo's superb efforts as an Assistant Editor of the journal for initiating and shepherding this project. We should also add, that our journal—as well as our parent society, The American Association for Anatomy—gives a loud shout-out and parabens to our large cohort of Brazilian scientists who both regularly publish their findings in our journal and energetically (seems like that is a characteristic of Brazilians!) participate in our meetings and other scientific endeavors (for more on the Brazilian contributions to our journal, see The Anatomical Record's Special Issue: "Building Bridges: Anatomical Sciences and Medical Education in Brazil," Curcio, 2021; Curcio & Laitman, 2021; Laitman & Albertine, 2021). "Pop why didn't we see any of the pink or puple dinos in the zoo on Sunday?" JL's future heir asked. "Sweetheart, they are not here any longer," the sage answered. "Did they go to Florida? You said all old things move to Florida," little miss observant queried. "It's complicated. You see, there were once many different types of animals and some are no longer around. Through the process of time, some animals change and their descendants look different but are still around. Make sense?" poor JL tried. "You mean the pinks can turn puple and the greens can turn blue? And do the horns fall off too? How can a pink turn puple? What makes a pink turn puple? Did the pinks eat the puples? How…" she became an unrelenting meteor shower of questions. "And, how and when did all the pink and puple dinos appear anyway?" JL's 6-year-old inquisitor and future paleontologist pounded away. Actually, a pretty insightful question, for any age, and one that this Special Issue addresses in assessing the extraordinary explosion of species and lineages in the remarkable Triassic and how they came to be and what happened to them. While this Anatomical Record Special Issue wont address the heady question of pinks to puples, it will shed light on the unparalleled explosion of tetrapod species after the End-Permian-Extinction and chart their trajectories. The tale of "Triassic Circus" is truly a remarkable one, and one we in The Anatomical Record are proud to present. Hunker down with some stuffed dinos and enjoy! Heather F. Smith: Conceptualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing. Jeffrey T. Laitman: Conceptualization; investigation; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing; visualization.