The “χ” of the matter: testing the relationship between Paleoenvironments and Three Theropod Clades

The view of spinosaurs as dinosaurs of semi-aquatic habits and strongly associated with marginal and coastal habitats are deeply rooted in both scientific and popular knowledge, but it was never statistically tested. Inspired by a previous analysis of other dinosaur clades and major paleoenvironmental categories, here we present our own statistical evaluation of the association between coastal and terrestrial paleoenvironments and spinosaurids, along with other two theropod taxa: abelisaurids and carcharodontosaurids. We also included a taphonomic perspective and classified the occurrences in categories related to potential biases in order to better address our interpretations. Our main results can be summarized as follows: 1) the taxon with the largest amount of statistical evidence showing it positively associated to coastal paleoenvironments is Spinosauridae; 2) abelisaurids and carcharodontosaurids had more statistical evidence showing them positively associated with terrestrial paleoenvironments; 3) it is likely that spinosaurids also occupied spatially inland areas in a way somehow comparable at least to carcharodontosaurids; 4) abelisaurids may have been more common than the other two taxa in inland habitats

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Paleobiologia sensorial do rincossauro sul-rio-grandense Teyumbaita Sulcognathus (Azevedo e Schultz, 1987)

O crânio do espécime UFRGS-PV-0232-T, holótipo de Teyumbaita sulcognathus, foi avaliado no presente trabalho por meio de imagens de tomografia e com o uso do software InVesalius para se obter dados acerca da paleobiologia sensorial dessa espécie de rincossauro. Por meio dessa metodologia foi possível recriar digitalmente um molde da cavidade interna do neurocrânio, bem como de dois dos três canais semicirculares de cada orelha interna. Também foi possível constatar a presença de impressões da parte olfatória do encéfalo desse animal na superfície ventral dos ossos frontais, além de se realizar uma inspeção da morfologia da cavidade nasal. Todos os moldes, as impressões e os aspectos da cavidade nasal são semelhantes aos já figurados na literatura para outro rincossauro, Hyperodapedon gordoni. Para essa espécie, foi inferido um apurado sentido da olfação, o que também pode ser estendido para T. sulcognathus. No entanto, esse estudo julga como inconclusivo o teste da hipótese quanto à presença dos órgãos de Jacobson na cavidade nasal dos rincossauros. Ademais, foi inferido que o sentido da vomerolfação tenha sido pouco desenvolvido nesses animais, o que implica o fato de o comportamento social nesses animais ter requerido uma maior contribuição de outros sentidos, como a visão e o olfato, do que em outros arcossauromorfos basais.The skull of UFRGS-PV-0232-T, the holotype of the rhynchosaur Teyumbaita sulcognathus, was restudied in order to gather informations about the sensory paleobiology of this animal. The material was subjected to CT scanning and the CT images obtained were imported into the free software InVesalius. It was possible to digitally reconstruct the cranial endocasts and the casts of two semicircular canals of each inner ear and to analyze the morphology of the nasal cavity. The data gathered was essentially similar to the ones already available in the literature for Hyperodapedon gordoni, and is problable that both taxa had a great sense of smell. In the other hand this work does not support the inferences about the presence of Jacobson’s organs in the snout of these animals and considers this issue as uncertain. Actually, it was inferred that rhychosaurs had a vomerolfaction sense poor developed, what suggests that the social behavior in these animals required a greater contribution of other senses like vision and olfaction than in other basal archosauromorphs

Contribuições à paleontologia de Terópodes não-avianos do Mesocretáceo do Nordeste do Brasil

A Região Nordeste do Brasil apresenta um importante registro fóssil de dinossauros mesocretáceos, especialmente do clado Theropoda, popularmente referidos como terópodes. A quase totalidade dos espécimes é oriunda de dois depósitos sedimentares, a Formação Romualdo, Albiano da Bacia do Araripe, e a Formação Alcântara, Cenomaniano da Bacia de São Luís-Grajaú. A presente tese apresenta o estado da arte referente aos terópodes não-avianos das formações supracitadas, contextualizando-os do ponto de vista paleogeográfico e paleoecológico. A revisão dos principais achados é acompanhada por resultados inéditos obtidos pelo pós-graduando ao longo de seu Doutorado, dos quais os principais estão sumarizados a seguir: (1) a obtenção de evidência estatística para a associação positiva entre espinossaurídeos e paleoambientes costeiros; (2) o primeiro registro inequívoco do táxon Abelisauridae na Formação Alcântara; (3) o reconhecimento de uma distinção faunística entre a diversidade dinossauriana das formações Romualdo e Alcântara; (4) a identificação das coroas dentárias maxilares do espinossaurídeo Irritator challengeri; (5) a obtenção de uma nova hipótese para as relações filogenéticas entre os espinossaurídeos brasileiros e os demais táxons. Estes resultados, acompanhados de outros, possuem implicações taxonômicas, evolutivas, paleobiogeográficas e paleoecológicas. Por exemplo, a maior abundância de somatofósseis de espinossaurídeos nas formações mencionadas provavelmente está relacionada à associação positiva entre estes terópodes e os paleoambientes costeiros. Por outro lado, a identificação das coroas dentárias maxilares de I. challengeri, em conjunto com os resultados cladísticos, permitiram a reapreciação de detalhes relativos à evolução das narinas externas de espinossaurídeos, bem como a refutação da hipótese de que o holótipo desta espécie é parte do mesmo espécime do holótipo de Angaturama limai. Ademais, a análise cladística realizada sugere que o clado Baryonychinae não é monofilético. Por fim, o reconhecimento da presença de abelissaurídeos na Formação Alcântara está de acordo com a abundância deste táxon em depósitos sedimentares gondwânicos durante o mesocretáceo, reforçando as semelhanças existentes com os depósitos mesocretáceos africanos, ao mesmo tempo em que salienta as diferenças entre esta unidade e a Formação Romualdo quanto à diversidade de dinossauros. Isto sugere que a fauna dinossauriana da América do Sul era mais heterogênea do que previamente assumido por outros autores, o que deve ser levado em consideração quando de análises futuras de similaridade de faunas. No entanto, a despeito do que já se conhecia e dos novos dados aportados por esta tese, muitas outras questões ainda permanecem por serem investigadas mais a fundo. Desta forma, esta contribuição se constitui em um passo adicional – porém nunca definitivo – no propósito de expandir o conhecimento sobre os terópodes não-avianos do mesocretáceo do Nordeste do Brasil.The northeastern Brazil has yielded an important fossil record of Mid- Cretaceous dinosaurs, especially the clade Theropoda. Almost all specimens come from two fossiliferous deposits, the Romualdo Formation, Albian of the Araripe Basin, and the Alcântara Formation, Cenomanian of the São Luis-Grajaú Basin. This thesis presents the state of the art relative to the nonavian theropods from the aforementioned formations, contextualizing them paleobiogeographically and paleoecologically. The review of the findings is followed by the inedit results gathered by the PhD candidate during his Doctorate, among which the main ones are summarized below: (1) the obtention of statistical evidence of the positive association between spinosaurids and coastal paleoenvironments; (2) the first unequivocal record of Abelisauridae from the Alcântara Formation; (3) the recognition of a faunal distinction between the dinosaur diversity of the Alcântara and Romualdo formations; (4) the identification of the maxillary tooth crowns of the spinosaurid Irritator challengeri; (5) the obtention of a new hypothesis of the phylogenetic relationships between the Brazilian spinosaurids and the other taxa. These results, along with others, have taxonomic, evolutionary, paleobiogeographic and paleoecological implications. For example, the greater abundance of spinosaurid body fossils in the those formations are likely related to the positive association between these theropods and coastal paleoenvironments. On the other hand, the identification of the maxillary tooth crowns of I. challengeri, along with the cladistic results, enabled the reanalysis of some details of the evolution of the external nares of spinosaurids, as well as the refutation of the hypothesis of the holotypes of this species and Angaturama limai belonging to the same specimen. Furthermore, the cladistic analysis suggests that Baryonychinae is not monophyletic. Finally, the record of abelisaurids from the Alcântara Formation is in agreement with the abundance of this taxon in Gondwanan deposits during the mid-Cretaceous, which strengthens the similarities with African mid-Cretaceous deposits, whereas it emphasizes the differences in dinosaur diversity between this unity and the Romualdo Formation. This suggests that the dinosaur fauna of South America was more heterogeneous than previously assumed by other authors, which must be taken into account by future analyses of similarities. Despite what was previously known and the new findings provided by this thesis, many other issues are still to be further investigated. Thus, this contribution is actually an additional step – although not the definite one – towards the expansion of the knowledge on mid-Cretaceous nonavian theropods from northeastern Brazil

Paleobiologia sensorial do rincossauro sul-rio-grandense Teyumbaita Sulcognathus (Azevedo e Schultz, 1987)

O crânio do espécime UFRGS-PV-0232-T, holótipo de Teyumbaita sulcognathus, foi avaliado no presente trabalho por meio de imagens de tomografia e com o uso do software InVesalius para se obter dados acerca da paleobiologia sensorial dessa espécie de rincossauro. Por meio dessa metodologia foi possível recriar digitalmente um molde da cavidade interna do neurocrânio, bem como de dois dos três canais semicirculares de cada orelha interna. Também foi possível constatar a presença de impressões da parte olfatória do encéfalo desse animal na superfície ventral dos ossos frontais, além de se realizar uma inspeção da morfologia da cavidade nasal. Todos os moldes, as impressões e os aspectos da cavidade nasal são semelhantes aos já figurados na literatura para outro rincossauro, Hyperodapedon gordoni. Para essa espécie, foi inferido um apurado sentido da olfação, o que também pode ser estendido para T. sulcognathus. No entanto, esse estudo julga como inconclusivo o teste da hipótese quanto à presença dos órgãos de Jacobson na cavidade nasal dos rincossauros. Ademais, foi inferido que o sentido da vomerolfação tenha sido pouco desenvolvido nesses animais, o que implica o fato de o comportamento social nesses animais ter requerido uma maior contribuição de outros sentidos, como a visão e o olfato, do que em outros arcossauromorfos basais.The skull of UFRGS-PV-0232-T, the holotype of the rhynchosaur Teyumbaita sulcognathus, was restudied in order to gather informations about the sensory paleobiology of this animal. The material was subjected to CT scanning and the CT images obtained were imported into the free software InVesalius. It was possible to digitally reconstruct the cranial endocasts and the casts of two semicircular canals of each inner ear and to analyze the morphology of the nasal cavity. The data gathered was essentially similar to the ones already available in the literature for Hyperodapedon gordoni, and is problable that both taxa had a great sense of smell. In the other hand this work does not support the inferences about the presence of Jacobson’s organs in the snout of these animals and considers this issue as uncertain. Actually, it was inferred that rhychosaurs had a vomerolfaction sense poor developed, what suggests that the social behavior in these animals required a greater contribution of other senses like vision and olfaction than in other basal archosauromorphs

Contribuições à paleontologia de Terópodes não-avianos do Mesocretáceo do Nordeste do Brasil

A Região Nordeste do Brasil apresenta um importante registro fóssil de dinossauros mesocretáceos, especialmente do clado Theropoda, popularmente referidos como terópodes. A quase totalidade dos espécimes é oriunda de dois depósitos sedimentares, a Formação Romualdo, Albiano da Bacia do Araripe, e a Formação Alcântara, Cenomaniano da Bacia de São Luís-Grajaú. A presente tese apresenta o estado da arte referente aos terópodes não-avianos das formações supracitadas, contextualizando-os do ponto de vista paleogeográfico e paleoecológico. A revisão dos principais achados é acompanhada por resultados inéditos obtidos pelo pós-graduando ao longo de seu Doutorado, dos quais os principais estão sumarizados a seguir: (1) a obtenção de evidência estatística para a associação positiva entre espinossaurídeos e paleoambientes costeiros; (2) o primeiro registro inequívoco do táxon Abelisauridae na Formação Alcântara; (3) o reconhecimento de uma distinção faunística entre a diversidade dinossauriana das formações Romualdo e Alcântara; (4) a identificação das coroas dentárias maxilares do espinossaurídeo Irritator challengeri; (5) a obtenção de uma nova hipótese para as relações filogenéticas entre os espinossaurídeos brasileiros e os demais táxons. Estes resultados, acompanhados de outros, possuem implicações taxonômicas, evolutivas, paleobiogeográficas e paleoecológicas. Por exemplo, a maior abundância de somatofósseis de espinossaurídeos nas formações mencionadas provavelmente está relacionada à associação positiva entre estes terópodes e os paleoambientes costeiros. Por outro lado, a identificação das coroas dentárias maxilares de I. challengeri, em conjunto com os resultados cladísticos, permitiram a reapreciação de detalhes relativos à evolução das narinas externas de espinossaurídeos, bem como a refutação da hipótese de que o holótipo desta espécie é parte do mesmo espécime do holótipo de Angaturama limai. Ademais, a análise cladística realizada sugere que o clado Baryonychinae não é monofilético. Por fim, o reconhecimento da presença de abelissaurídeos na Formação Alcântara está de acordo com a abundância deste táxon em depósitos sedimentares gondwânicos durante o mesocretáceo, reforçando as semelhanças existentes com os depósitos mesocretáceos africanos, ao mesmo tempo em que salienta as diferenças entre esta unidade e a Formação Romualdo quanto à diversidade de dinossauros. Isto sugere que a fauna dinossauriana da América do Sul era mais heterogênea do que previamente assumido por outros autores, o que deve ser levado em consideração quando de análises futuras de similaridade de faunas. No entanto, a despeito do que já se conhecia e dos novos dados aportados por esta tese, muitas outras questões ainda permanecem por serem investigadas mais a fundo. Desta forma, esta contribuição se constitui em um passo adicional – porém nunca definitivo – no propósito de expandir o conhecimento sobre os terópodes não-avianos do mesocretáceo do Nordeste do Brasil.The northeastern Brazil has yielded an important fossil record of Mid- Cretaceous dinosaurs, especially the clade Theropoda. Almost all specimens come from two fossiliferous deposits, the Romualdo Formation, Albian of the Araripe Basin, and the Alcântara Formation, Cenomanian of the São Luis-Grajaú Basin. This thesis presents the state of the art relative to the nonavian theropods from the aforementioned formations, contextualizing them paleobiogeographically and paleoecologically. The review of the findings is followed by the inedit results gathered by the PhD candidate during his Doctorate, among which the main ones are summarized below: (1) the obtention of statistical evidence of the positive association between spinosaurids and coastal paleoenvironments; (2) the first unequivocal record of Abelisauridae from the Alcântara Formation; (3) the recognition of a faunal distinction between the dinosaur diversity of the Alcântara and Romualdo formations; (4) the identification of the maxillary tooth crowns of the spinosaurid Irritator challengeri; (5) the obtention of a new hypothesis of the phylogenetic relationships between the Brazilian spinosaurids and the other taxa. These results, along with others, have taxonomic, evolutionary, paleobiogeographic and paleoecological implications. For example, the greater abundance of spinosaurid body fossils in the those formations are likely related to the positive association between these theropods and coastal paleoenvironments. On the other hand, the identification of the maxillary tooth crowns of I. challengeri, along with the cladistic results, enabled the reanalysis of some details of the evolution of the external nares of spinosaurids, as well as the refutation of the hypothesis of the holotypes of this species and Angaturama limai belonging to the same specimen. Furthermore, the cladistic analysis suggests that Baryonychinae is not monophyletic. Finally, the record of abelisaurids from the Alcântara Formation is in agreement with the abundance of this taxon in Gondwanan deposits during the mid-Cretaceous, which strengthens the similarities with African mid-Cretaceous deposits, whereas it emphasizes the differences in dinosaur diversity between this unity and the Romualdo Formation. This suggests that the dinosaur fauna of South America was more heterogeneous than previously assumed by other authors, which must be taken into account by future analyses of similarities. Despite what was previously known and the new findings provided by this thesis, many other issues are still to be further investigated. Thus, this contribution is actually an additional step – although not the definite one – towards the expansion of the knowledge on mid-Cretaceous nonavian theropods from northeastern Brazil

Geoeconomic variations in epidemiology, ventilation management, and outcomes in invasively ventilated intensive care unit patients without acute respiratory distress syndrome: a pooled analysis of four observational studies

Background: Geoeconomic variations in epidemiology, the practice of ventilation, and outcome in invasively ventilated intensive care unit (ICU) patients without acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) remain unexplored. In this analysis we aim to address these gaps using individual patient data of four large observational studies. Methods: In this pooled analysis we harmonised individual patient data from the ERICC, LUNG SAFE, PRoVENT, and PRoVENT-iMiC prospective observational studies, which were conducted from June, 2011, to December, 2018, in 534 ICUs in 54 countries. We used the 2016 World Bank classification to define two geoeconomic regions: middle-income countries (MICs) and high-income countries (HICs). ARDS was defined according to the Berlin criteria. Descriptive statistics were used to compare patients in MICs versus HICs. The primary outcome was the use of low tidal volume ventilation (LTVV) for the first 3 days of mechanical ventilation. Secondary outcomes were key ventilation parameters (tidal volume size, positive end-expiratory pressure, fraction of inspired oxygen, peak pressure, plateau pressure, driving pressure, and respiratory rate), patient characteristics, the risk for and actual development of acute respiratory distress syndrome after the first day of ventilation, duration of ventilation, ICU length of stay, and ICU mortality. Findings: Of the 7608 patients included in the original studies, this analysis included 3852 patients without ARDS, of whom 2345 were from MICs and 1507 were from HICs. Patients in MICs were younger, shorter and with a slightly lower body-mass index, more often had diabetes and active cancer, but less often chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure than patients from HICs. Sequential organ failure assessment scores were similar in MICs and HICs. Use of LTVV in MICs and HICs was comparable (42·4% vs 44·2%; absolute difference -1·69 [-9·58 to 6·11] p=0·67; data available in 3174 [82%] of 3852 patients). The median applied positive end expiratory pressure was lower in MICs than in HICs (5 [IQR 5-8] vs 6 [5-8] cm H2O; p=0·0011). ICU mortality was higher in MICs than in HICs (30·5% vs 19·9%; p=0·0004; adjusted effect 16·41% [95% CI 9·52-23·52]; p<0·0001) and was inversely associated with gross domestic product (adjusted odds ratio for a US$10 000 increase per capita 0·80 [95% CI 0·75-0·86]; p<0·0001). Interpretation: Despite similar disease severity and ventilation management, ICU mortality in patients without ARDS is higher in MICs than in HICs, with a strong association with country-level economic status