关键词: 柔腕短吻龙, 巢湖龙, 鱼龙类, 早三叠世, 安徽

Abstract:

Ichthyosaurs, firstly appeared at the end of the Early Triassic. The previously reported Ichthyosaurs show very high level of adaptability to life in water, and their osteology shows structural characters that are fully adapted to life in water without any terrestrial characters that can relate them to their terrestrial ancestor. Two specimens are studied, one belonging to Cartorhynchus and the other to Chaohusaurus with embryos found from the Lower Triassic (Olenekian) of Chaohu, Anhui Province, South China. Based on studies of the number of presacral vertebra (i.e. 31), the ratio of snout length to skull length (i.e. 0.35), the ratio of forelimb length to presacral vertebra length (i.e. 0.45), and comparisons of these measurements and morphological characters with the derived Ichthyosaurs, Cartorhynchus is considered to be primitive in structural features and to have an amphibianlike habit. Combined with the analyses of the embryo-bearing specimens of the Early Triassic Chaohusaurus and the Jurassic Stenopterygius, Chaohusaurus appears more derives than Cartorhynchus in body structural characters and is fully adapted to life in water; however, Chaohusaurus retained a head-first birth posture when giving birth to offsprings. Therefore, during the evolution of Ichthyosaurs from terrestrial ancestors to marine types, the adaptive structural characters (such as flipper, and elongate snout) and the adaptive behavioral characters (such as the mode of reproduction) might have evolved in different tempo, and the former changed earlier.

Key words: Cartorhynchus, Chaohusaurus, Ichthyosaurs, Early Triassic, Anhui Province