Figure 4
From: Caudal autotomy as anti-predatory behaviour in Palaeozoic reptiles
Variation in autotomous caudal regions in Early Permian captorhinids. (a) Partial caudal series of a juvenile captorhinid (OMNH 03304) with at least five autotomous vertebrae, beginning with the last transverse process-bearing caudal (arrow). Note the presence of unfused neural arches. (b) Autotomous region of an articulated caudal series (OMNH 1020, the image has been cropped to include only the caudal series) with at least eight autotomous vertebrae, beginning with the last transverse process-bearing caudal (arrow). (c) Partial caudal series of Captorhinus laticeps (OUSM 15024, the image has been cropped to include only the caudal series) with an autotomous region beginning at the eighth caudal (arrow) and ending at the eleventh (asterisk). (d) Reconstruction of the known caudal region of Captorhinus (modified from)22, showing extent of autotomous region (coloured) based on (a–f). (e–g) Isolated anterior (transverse process-bearing), middle (lacking transverse processes, neural spines steeply inclined), and posterior (low-angled neural spines) caudal vertebrae of captorhinids from the Richards Spur locality. Abbreviation: tp, transverse process. Anterior is to the left in all of the images.
