Allosauroidea
| Allosauroidea | ||||||||||||
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Live reconstruction of Allosaurus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Oxfordium to Santonium ( Upper Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous ) | ||||||||||||
| 163.5 to 83.6 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Allosauroidea | ||||||||||||
| Currie & Zhao , 1994 |
The Allosauroidea are a clade of the Avetheropoda . They are defined node-based as the youngest common ancestor of Allosaurus fragilis and Sinraptor dongi and all of their descendants. The group includes four families, the Allosauridae , the Metriacanthosauridae ( junior synonym : Sinraptoridae ), the Carcharodontosauridae and the Neovenatoridae .
description
The members of the Allosauroidea were all carnivorous (meat-eating) and moved biped (two-legged). Just like most other theropods, each allosauroid had arms with three fingers that were equipped with considerable claws .
The size of the individual genera varied greatly. The Sinraptor was about six to seven meters in length rather small compared to the Carcharodontosauriden . Some of them, like the Giganotosaurus or the Carcharodontosaurus, were among the largest predatory dinosaurs of all time. Genera such as Allosaurus were particularly characterized by conspicuous features, such as a bump in front of the eyes . The allosauroids were built relatively lightly compared to other families such as the tyrannosaurs . Thus achieved Tyrannosaurus , which is about three feet shorter than Giganotosaurus was six tonnes, almost the same weight. The antorbital fossa extends to the nasal bones . The distal end of the Proc. paroccipitalis is completely below the foramen magnum .
The last known species is Aerosteon riocoloradensis from the Middle Upper Cretaceous ( Santonium ).
External system
The Allosauroidea were originally united with the Megalosauroidea (synonym: Spinosauroidea) in the clade of the Carnosauria (e.g. Rauhut , 2003) and contrasted with the Coelurosauria . According to Carrano et al. However, the Carnosauria are a paraphyletic group and a triple division with the monophyletic clades Megalosauroidea, Allosauroidea and Coelurosauria is preferred. Allosauroidea and Coelurosauria can be further summarized to the Avetheropoda , which is rated as a sister group to the Megalosauroidea within the Tetanurae .
Internal system
The following cladogram from the first description by Siats shows the internal systematics of the Allosauroidea: The cladogram essentially follows the analysis by Carrano et al. 2012:
| Allosauroidea |
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*) Junior synonym: Sinraptoridae
literature
- David B. Weishampel , Peter Dodson , Halszka Osmólska (eds.): The Dinosauria . 2nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Gregory S. Paul: The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs , 2010. ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , pp. 90-99 online
- ↑ a b c M. T. Carrano, RBJ Benson & SD Sampson: The phylogeny of Tetanurae (Dinosauria: Theropoda). In: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology , Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 211–300, 2012. (digitized version )
- ↑ Michael J. Benton : Paleontology of the vertebrates. Translation of the 3rd English edition by Hans-Ulrich Pfretzschner. Pfeil, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89937-072-0 , p. 230.
- ^ OWM Rauhut: The interrelationships and evolution of basal theropod dinosaurs. In: Special Papers in Palaeontology , No. 69, 213 pp., The Palaeontological Association, London, 2003. (digitized version)
- ↑ Lindsay E. Zanno, Peter J. Makovicky . Neovenatorid theropods are apex predators in the Late Cretaceous of North America. In: Nature Communications . 4, Article Number 2827, 2013, ISSN 2041-1723 , doi : 10.1038 / ncomms3827 .
Web links
- Allosauroidea (English)