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First Jurassic Choristodera from Asia

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Abstract

Although choristoderes have a good Lower Cretaceous record in Asia, they have never previously been recorded from Jurassic deposits. Here we describe fragmentary vertebral material referable to Choristodera indet. from the Middle Jurassic Balabansai Svita of the Fergana Valley, Kyrgyzstan. This provides a significant range extension for the group in Asia and shows that choristoderes already had a Pan-Laurasian distribution in the Jurassic.

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Acknowledgement

Field work in Kyrgyzstan in 2000–03 was carried out in cooperation with the M. M. Adyshev Institute of Geology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic. The director of this institute, Prof. Apas A. Bakirov (Bishkek) is thanked for his support. We are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for constructional criticism on our paper. This project was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (Ma 1643/8-1-2 and 436 RUS 113/602/0-1. The work of TM additionally was supported by a Heisenberg grant (DFG) and the work of AA by a Russian Fund of Basic Research (RFBR) grant 04-04-49113 and President’s of Russia grant MD-255.2003.04.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 1, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

    Alexander O. Averianov

  2. Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Thomas Martin

  3. Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Susan E. Evans

  4. M.M. Adyshev Institute of Geology, National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyz Republic, Erkindik 30, Bishkek, 720481, Kyrgyzstan

    Aizek A. Bakirov

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  1. Alexander O. Averianov
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  2. Thomas Martin
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  4. Aizek A. Bakirov
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Correspondence to Thomas Martin.

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Averianov, A.O., Martin, T., Evans, S.E. et al. First Jurassic Choristodera from Asia. Naturwissenschaften 93, 46–50 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-005-0061-2

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