First Virtual Reconstruction of a Mosasaurid Brain Endocast: Description and Comparison of the Endocast of Tethysaurus nopcsai with Those of Extant Squamates
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Paleoneurological studies of mosasaurids are few and limited to old partial reconstructions made from latex casts on Platecarpus and Clidastes. Here, the brain endocasts of three specimens of the early mosasaurid Tethysaurus nopcsai from the Turonian of Morocco are reconstructed for the first time by using micro-computed tomography. Comparisons between Tethysaurus and the later Platecarpus and Clidastes show that distinct endocranial organizations have occurred within the clade through time, including differences in the flexure of the endocast and the size of the parietal eye. The physiological consequences of such variability remain unclear and further investigations are required to better interpret these variations. In addition, the endocast of Tethysaurus was compared to those of extant anguimorphs, iguanians, and snakes, using landmark-based geometric morphometrics. The results revealed that Tethysaurus exhibits a unique combination of endocranial features compared to extant toxicoferans. Contrary to previous statements, we find no strong resemblance in endocast morphology between Tethysaurus and varanids. Rather, the endocast of Tethysaurus shows some morphological similarities with each of the clades of anguimorphs, iguanians, and snakes. In this context, while a notable phylogenetic signal is observed in the variability of squamate endocasts, it is premature to establish any phylogenetic affinities between mosasaurids and extant squamates based solely on endocast morphologies.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".