BACKGROUND Secondary adaptation to aquatic life occurred independently in several amniote lineages, including reptiles during the Mesozoic and mammals during the Cenozoic. These evolutionary shifts to aquatic environments imply major morphological modifications, especially of the feeding apparatus. Mesozoic (250-65 Myr) marine reptiles, such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurid squamates, c...

[1] A >500-km-long east-west trending metamorphic belt in the Qiangtang terrane of central Tibet consists of tectonic melange that occurs in the footwalls of Late Triassic–Early Jurassic domal low-angle normal faults. The melange is comprised of a strongly deformed matrix of metasedimentary and mafic schists that encloses lesser-deformed blocks of metabasites, Carboniferous–Triassic metasedimen...