Mesozoic marine reptiles

 

The Mesozoic saw the independent emergence of several lines of marine reptiles. Besides thalattosuchian crocodylomorphs (see my other research topic), those include among others plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs.

 

This is includes several side projects on non-thalattosuchian marine reptiles.

 

This is an independent project in collaboration with Sven Sachs and Dr. Daniel Madzia.

Cretaceous pterosaurs

 

Pterosaurs were volant reptiles of the Mesozoic and the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight. While there is an impressive high diversity of well-preserved pterosaurs from the Jurassic strata of Germany, there is also a sparse record of body and trace fossils from the Cretaceous.

 

This project's aim is to revise the record of Cretaceous pterosaurs from Germany, also in context to other contemporary fossils from other parts of the world.

 

This is an independent project in collaboration with Sven Sachs, Dr. Jahn Hornung and Dr. Benjamin Kear.

Paleozoic ammonoids

 

Ammonoids are an extinct clade of hard-shelled cephalopods that thrived the ancient oceans for more than 300 million years. Popular with fossil collectors and paleontologists alike, ammonoids are undoubtedly one of most famous fossil groups and the dominant macrofossils in marine strata of the late Paleozoic and Mesozoic.

 

Contrasting their overabundance, we still know relatively little about their actual paleoecology. The aim of this project is to use large datasets to quantitatively analyze the macroecological patterns in Paleozoic ammonoids.

 

This project is based on my previous Master thesis at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, supervised by Prof. Dr. Manuel Steinbauer and Dr. Kenneth de Baets with collaborations of Dr. Adam Kocsis and Prof. Dr. Dieter Korn.

Vertebrae of the dubious rhomaleosaurid plesiosaur Trematospondylus macrocephalus from the Middle Jurassic of Balingen (Baden-Württemberg).

Portrait of the pterodactyloid Lonchodectes wiedenrothi from the Early Cretaceous of Hanover (Lower Saxony). Artist: Joschua Knüppe.

The Late Devonian goniatitid Sporadoceras.


Related publications:

  • Abel, P., De Baets, K., and Steinbauer, M. (2018). Macroecological patterns in Paleozoic ammonoids. GeoBonn 2018 Living Earth Abstracts: p. 230.
  • Abel, P., De Baets, K., Korn, D., and Steinbauer, M. J. (2019). Macroecological patterns in the extinct cephalopod subclass Ammonoidea. macro 2019 - Bridging local patterns and global challenges: p. 57.
  • Abel, P., Hornung, J.J., Kear, B.P. and Sachs, S. (2019). A possible anhangueran pterosaur mandible from the Lower Cretaceous of Germany. Program and abstracts. XVII Conference of the EAVP – Brussels, Belgium 2 – 6 July 2019: 7.
  • Abel, P., Hornung, J.J., Kear, B.P., and Sachs, S. (2019). Reassesment of the enigmatic pterosaur "Ornithocheirus" wiedenrothi from the Lower Cretaceous of Northern Germany. Starck, M. & Huysseune, A. (eds) International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology (ICVM) Abstract Issue 2019. Journal of Morphology, Supplement 280: S73-S74.
  • Abel, P., Hornung, J.J., Kear, B.P., and Sachs, S. (2021). An anhanguerian pterodactyloid mandible from the lower Valanginian of Northern Germany, and the German record of Cretaceous pterosaurs. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. doi: 10.4202/app.00818.2020.
  • Sachs, S., Abel, P. and Madzia, D. 2023b. Unusual plesiosaur vertebrae from the Lower Jurassic Posidonia Shale of Germany. Historical Biology. doi: 10.1080/08912963.2023.2242376
  • Sachs, S., Abel, P. and Madzia, D. 2023a. A 'long-forgotten' plesiosaur provides evidence of large-bodied rhomaleosaurids in the Middle Jurassic of Germany. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 42(5), e2205456. doi: 10.1080/02724634.2023.2205456