Scaling up morphological differentiation of pangolin scales: Serial, ontogenetic and evolutionary variation.

Pangolins are the most heavily trafficked mammals in the world, largely because of the high demand for their keratinous scales from the traditional Chinese medicine market. While seizures of pangolin material are largely composed of isolated scales, efficient approaches to reach species-level identification are missing. This mostly originates from the lack of comparative studies on the shape of pangolin scales, resulting in knowledge gaps on the imbricated effects of serial, ontogenetic, and evolutionary variations.

Size, not phylogeny, explains the morphology of the endosseous labyrinth in the crown clade Crocodylia.

The endosseous labyrinths are associated with several functions, including hearing and spatial orientation. Throughout their evolutionary history, crocodylomorphs have thrived in diverse environments, and the morphology of their endosseous labyrinths has been suggested as a proxy for inferring their lifestyle. However, the relationships between the shape of their endosseous labyrinths and ontogenetic and phylogenetic factors are difficult to interpret and have rarely been investigated in depth previously, particularly in terms of dataset size.

The neuroanatomy and pneumaticity of Hamadasuchus (Crocodylomorpha, Peirosauridae) from the Cretaceous of Morocco and its paleoecological significance for altirostral forms.

We describe the endocranial structures of Hamadasuchus, a peirosaurid crocodylomorph from the late Albian-Cenomanian Kem Kem group of Morocco. The cranial endocast, associated nerves and arteries, endosseous labyrinths, and cranial pneumatization, as well as the bones of the braincase of a new specimen, are reconstructed and compared with extant and fossil crocodylomorphs, which represent different lifestyles. Cranial bones of this specimen are identified as belonging to Hamadasuchus, with close affinities with Rukwasuchus yajabalijekundu, another peirosaurid from the 'middle' Cretaceous of Tanzania.