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Post-natal parental care in a Cretaceous diapsid from northeastern China

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Abstract

Post-natal parental care seems to have evolved numerous times in vertebrates. Among extant amniotes, it is present in crocodilians, birds, and mammals. However, evidence of this behavior is extremely rare in the fossil record and is only reported for two types of dinosaurs, and a varanopid ‘pelycosaur’. Here we report new evidence for post-natal parental care in Philydrosaurus, a choristodere, from the Yixian Formation of western Liaoning Province, China. We review the fossil record of reproduction in choristoderes, and this represents the oldest record of post-natal parental care in diapsids to our knowledge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, 100037, China

    Junchang Lü & Yongqing Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Stratigraphy and Paleontology, Ministry of Land and Resources of China, Beijing, 100037, China

    Junchang Lü & Yongqing Liu

  3. Hokkaido University Museum, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan

    Yoshitsugu Kobayashi

  4. School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Joseph Banks Laboratories, Green Lane, Lincoln, LN6 7DL, UK

    D. Charles Deeming

Authors
  1. Junchang Lü
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  2. Yoshitsugu Kobayashi
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  3. D. Charles Deeming
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  4. Yongqing Liu
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Correspondence to Junchang Lü.

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Lü, J., Kobayashi, Y., Deeming, D.C. et al. Post-natal parental care in a Cretaceous diapsid from northeastern China. Geosci J 19, 273–280 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-014-0047-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-014-0047-1

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