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The infratemporal fenestra, also called the lateral temporal fenestra or lower temporal fenestra, is the lower of the two and is exposed primarily in lateral (side) view. Temporal fenestrae in relation to the other skull openings in the dinosaur Massospondylus , a type of diapsid .
The lower temporal fenestra, usually present as a hole in the back of the skull of choristoderes, is closed by bone in Philydrosaurus. The eye sockets are large and spaced close together, similar to Monjurosuchus and Lazarussuchus.
The lower temporal fenestra (also known as the infratemporal fenestra) was typically a large hole on the side of the skull, although it was not completely enclosed from below in many lepidosaurs (the group of reptiles containing lizards, snakes, and the tuatara) and a few archosauromorphs (such as Prolacerta and Kadimakara). In these reptiles ...
This schematic shows the skull viewed from the left side. The middle opening is the orbit of the eye; the opening to the right of it is the temporal fenestra. Synapsids evolved a temporal fenestra behind each eye orbit on the lateral surface of the skull. It may have provided new attachment sites for jaw muscles.
The tuatara and some extinct rhynchocephalians have a more rigid skull with a complete lower temporal bar closing the lower temporal fenestra formed by the fusion of the jugal and quadrate/quadratojugal bones, similar to the condition found in primitive diapsids. However early rhynchocephalians and lepidosauromorphs had an open lower temporal ...
The lower temporal bar forms the lower border of the infratemporal fenestra, one of two holes in the side of the head and a hallmark of a diapsidan skull. However, many diapsids, including modern squamates (lizards and snakes), have lost the lower temporal bar. [7]
It is now commonly believed that euryapsids (particularly sauropterygians) are in fact diapsids (which have two fenestrae behind the orbit) that lost the lower temporal fenestra. Euryapsids are usually considered entirely extinct, although turtles might be part of the sauropterygian clade [ 1 ] while other authors disagree. [ 2 ]
Skull of the basal rhynchocephalian Planocephalosaurus, which has an open lower temporal fenestra. The complete lower temporal bar (caused by the fusion of the jugal and quadtrate/quadratojugal bones of the skull) of the tuatara, often historically asserted to be a primitive feature retained from earlier reptiles, is actually a derived feature ...