{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]],"date-time":"2026-03-06T04:13:56Z","timestamp":1772770436968,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,15]],"date-time":"2017-11-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1510704000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001711","name":"Swiss National Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["205321\u2010162775"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["205321\u2010162775"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001711","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001659","name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["RA 1012\/12\u20101"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RA 1012\/12\u20101"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001655","name":"Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["91546784"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["91546784"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001655","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003074","name":"Agencia Nacional de Promoci\u00f3n Cient\u00edfica y Tecnol\u00f3gica","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["ANPCyT PICT\u20102012\u20100748"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ANPCyT PICT\u20102012\u20100748"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003074","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Journal of Morphology"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>Melanosuchus niger<\/jats:italic> (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea) is one of the six living caimanine species widely distributed throughout the Amazon River basin today. Although there is only one extant species of <jats:italic>Melanosuchus<\/jats:italic>, fossil material assigned to this genus, represented by <jats:italic>M. fisheri<\/jats:italic>, has been reported from the late Miocene in South America. However, the validity of this taxon has been questioned and a recent investigation indicates that the referred specimen of <jats:italic>M. fisheri<\/jats:italic> (MCZ 4336) actually belongs to <jats:italic>Globidentosuchus brachyrostris<\/jats:italic>, while those diagnostic characters present in the holotype (MCNC 243) fall into the spectrum of intraspecific variation of <jats:italic>M. niger<\/jats:italic>. Here, we compare the skull shape of the holotype of <jats:italic>M. fisheri<\/jats:italic> with the ontogenetic series of the four jacarean species (<jats:italic>M. niger, Caiman yacare, Caiman crocodilus<\/jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>Caiman latirostris<\/jats:italic>) using 2D\u2010geometric morphometric analyses in two different views. The analyses indicate that MCNC 243 falls into the morphospace of <jats:italic>M. niger<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>C. latirostris<\/jats:italic>. Despite strong shape similarities between juveniles of <jats:italic>C. latirostris<\/jats:italic> and MCNC 243, further anatomical comparisons reveal notable differences between them. In contrast, no concrete anatomical differences can be found between MCNC 243 and <jats:italic>M. niger<\/jats:italic>, although shape analyses indicate that MCNC 243 is relatively robust for its size. Thus, this study is able to confirm that the genus <jats:italic>Melanosuchus<\/jats:italic> was present in the late Miocene, but it still remains unclear if MCNC 243 should be treated as a junior synonym or probably a sister species of <jats:italic>M. niger<\/jats:italic>. Its Miocene age favors the second option, but as the shape analyses were also not able to extract any diagnostic characters, it should be retained as <jats:italic>Melanosuchus<\/jats:italic> cf. <jats:italic>niger<\/jats:italic>.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/jmor.20769","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,15]],"date-time":"2017-11-15T07:22:47Z","timestamp":1510730567000},"page":"259-273","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Cranial shape variation in jacarean caimanines (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea) and its implications in the taxonomic status of extinct species: The case of <i>Melanosuchus fisheri<\/i>"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"279","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9410-4569","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Christian","family":"Foth","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geosciences University of Fribourg\/Freiburg, Chemin du Mus\u00e9e 6 Fribourg CH\u20101700 Switzerland"},{"name":"Staatliches Museum f\u00fcr Naturkunde, Rosenstein 1 Stuttgart D\u201070191 Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mar\u00eda Victoria","family":"Fernandez Blanco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Divisi\u00f3n Paleontolog\u00eda Vertebrados, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas y T\u00e9cnicas (CONICET), Museo de La Plata\u2010Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Paseo del Bosque s\/n. 1900, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Paula","family":"Bona","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Divisi\u00f3n Paleontolog\u00eda Vertebrados, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas y T\u00e9cnicas (CONICET), Museo de La Plata\u2010Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Paseo del Bosque s\/n. 1900, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Torsten M.","family":"Scheyer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pal\u00e4ontologisches Institut und Museum, Universit\u00e4t Z\u00fcrich, Karl Schmid\u2010Strasse 4 Z\u00fcrich CH\u20108006 Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,15]]},"container-title":["Journal of Morphology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/api.wiley.com\/onlinelibrary\/tdm\/v1\/articles\/10.1002%2Fjmor.20769","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1002\/jmor.20769","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,29]],"date-time":"2023-09-29T00:28:11Z","timestamp":1695947291000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/jmor.20769"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,15]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,2]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1002\/jmor.20769"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/jmor.20769","archive":["Portico"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["0362-2525","1097-4687"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0362-2525","type":"print"},{"value":"1097-4687","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,15]]}}}