Intra-specific variation and allometry of the skull of Late Cretaceous side-necked turtle Bauruemys elegans (Pleurodira Podocnemididae) and how to deal with morphometric data in fossil vertebrates

摘要

BackgroundPrevious quantitative studies on Bauruemys elegans (Suárez, 1969) shell variation, as well as the taphonomic interpretation of its type locality, have suggested that all specimens collected in this locality may have belonged to the same population. We rely on this hypothesis in a morphometric study of the skull. Also, we tentatively assessed the eating preference habits differentiation that might be explained as due to ontogenetic changes.