PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
The squamates (lizards, snakes, and relatives) today comprise more than 10,000 species, and yet their sister group, the Rhynchocephalia, is represented by a single species today, the tuatara. The explosion in squamate diversity has been tracked back to the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution, 100 million years ago (Ma), the time when flowering plants began their takeover of terrestrial ecosystems, associated with diversification of coevolving insects and insect-eating predators such as lizards, birds, and mammals. Squamates arose much earlier, but their long pre-Cretaceous history of some 150 million years (Myr) is documented by sparse fossils. Here, we provide evidence for an initial radiation of squamate morphology in the Middle and Late Jurassic (174-145 Ma), and show that they established their key ecological roles much earlier than had been assumed, and they have not changed them much since.
摘要：
鳞片（蜥蜴，蛇,和亲戚)今天包括10,000多个物种，然而他们的姐妹团体，Rhynchocephalia,今天由一个物种代表，Tuatara.鳞状物种多样性的爆发可以追溯到白垩纪陆地革命，1亿年前（Ma），开花植物开始接管陆地生态系统的时候，与共同进化的昆虫和食虫捕食者如蜥蜴的多样化有关，鸟,和哺乳动物。鳞状细胞出现得更早，但是他们的白垩纪前大约1.5亿年（Myr）的悠久历史是由稀疏的化石记录的。这里,我们为侏罗世中晚期（174-145Ma）的鳞状形态的初始辐射提供了证据，并表明他们比预期更早地建立了关键的生态角色，从那以后，他们并没有改变太多。
