First evidence of centralia in Ichthyopterygia reiterating bias from paedomorphic characters on marine reptile phylogenetic reconstruction

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Y. Sun, Z. Sun, and C. Ji for their help throughout the present project. The field work that led to the discovery of the new specimen was made possible by W. Chen, Y. Li, L. Ma, H. Lin, J. Sun, P. Yang, and X. Zou. We also thank T. Hu and T. Sato for fossil preparation. We thank E. Maxwell and B. Kear for helpful reviews, and R. O’Keefe for handling the manuscript as the Editor. Field work was supported by National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration (no. 8669-09) to R.M., Project 40920124002 and 41372016 from the National Natural Science Foundation of China to D.J., Project 123102 from State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS) to D.J., Project 20120001110072 from the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education to D.J., and a Project from Department of Land and Resource of Anhui Province to G.C.