Neovenatoridae

Neovenatoridae
Live reconstruction by Neovenator
Temporal occurrence
Lower to Upper Cretaceous ( Barremium to Santonium )
130.7 to 83.6 million years
Locations
Europe Asia South America Australia
Systematics
Tetanurae Avetheropoda Carnosauria Allosauroidea Carcharodontosauria Neovenatoridae
Scientific name
Neovenatoridae
Benson , Carrano & Brusatte , 2010

The Neovenatoridae is a group of theropod dinosaurs within the Allosauroidea , a group of Carnosauria . They lived during the Cretaceous Period and are the last surviving group of the Allosauroidea.

This group was first proposed by Benson and colleagues in 2010, and according to these authors it should include the genera Neovenator , Chilantaisaurus , Fukuiraptor , Australovenator , Orkoraptor , Megaraptor, and Aerosteon . Agnolin and colleagues later assigned the Australian rapator to this group as well in 2010 . Within the Neovenatoridae, Benson and colleagues established another group, the Megaraptora .

Reconstruction of Aerosteon riocoloradensis

General and characteristics

While representatives of the Allosauroidea and Megalosauroidea were the dominant large land-dwelling carnivores in the Middle and Upper Jurassic , they were replaced by Tyrannosaurids and Abelisaurids in the Cretaceous . The Neovenatoridae represent a diverse, globally distributed group of Cretaceous Allosauroidea whose last known representative ( Orkoraptor ) comes from the Maastrichtian , the Upper Cretaceous - this shows that the Allosauroidea existed until mass extinction on the Cretaceous-Tertiary border . A second large group of Cretaceous Allosauroidea was the Carcharodontosauridae . Carcharodontosauridae and Neovenatoridae are summarized by Benson and colleagues as Carcharodontosauria .

Original representatives of the group such as Neovenator show body proportions that are also found in other representatives of the Tetanurae . Neovenator roughly corresponds to Allosaurus in terms of size and proportions . The original Chilantaisaurus was also relatively large at an estimated 2.5 tons. In contrast, advanced representatives of the Neovenatoridae, the Megaraptora, show extensive modifications of the construction plan. Representatives of this group were smaller, had long arms with large claws, legs adapted to fast running and an appendicular skeleton (pelvis, shoulder girdle and limbs) that was lighter due to pneumatization (air-filled cavities in the bones). These developmental trends of the Megaraptora are also evident in other theropods from the lineage that produced the birds ( convergent evolution ).

Definition and synapomorphies

The neovenatoridae are defined as main line based Taxon ( stem-based definition includes), the all taxa with closer with Neovenator salerii than Carcharodontosaurus saharicus , Allosaurus fragilis or Sinraptor Dongi are related.

The group can be distinguished from other groups on the basis of 7 synapomorphies (jointly derived characteristics). Below that was the shoulder blade (scapula), which was short and wide compared to other allosaurids. In addition, the iliac bone (ilium) was pneumatized, so it had cavities. Other possible synapomorphies are related to the elongated, raptor-like arms; Corresponding fossils are missing from Neovenator .

Systematics

Live reconstruction of Gualicho shinyae

The Neovenatoridae is classified within the Allosauroidea, which in turn is counted to the Tetanurae . Within the Allosauroidea, the Neovenatoridae and the Carcharodontosauridae are summarized by Benson and colleagues as Carcharodontosauria . The following cladogram reflects the classification of Benson and colleagues (2010):

Allosauroidea	Sinraptoridae     Allosaurus   Carcharodontosauria   Carcharodontosauridae     Neovenatoridae

Within the Neovenatoridae, Benson and colleagues lead a subgroup, the Megaraptora, which includes all representatives except for the original genera Neovenator and Chilantaisaurus . Here are Australovenator and fukuiraptor and aerosteon and Mega Raptor each as a sister species considered. The following cladogram shows the internal systematics of the Neovenatoridae according to Benson and colleagues (2010):

Neovenatoridae	Neovenator  unnamed  Chilantaisaurus  Megaraptora   unnamed  Australovenator     Fukuiraptor     Orcaptor  unnamed  Aerosteon     Megaraptor

Web links

Commons : Neovenatoridae  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ u. a. 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , pp. 98-99, princeton.edu .
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Federico L. Agnolin, Martín D. Ezcurra, Diego F. Pais, Steven W. Salisbury: A reappraisal of the Cretaceous non-avian dinosaur faunas from Australia and New Zealand: evidence for their Gondwanan affinities. In: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. Vol. 8, No. 2, 2010, pp. 257-300, doi: 10.1080 / 14772011003594870 , ISSN  1477-2019 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Roger BJ Benson, Matthew T. Carrano, Stephen L. Brusatte: A new clade of archaic large-bodied predatory dinosaurs (Theropoda: Allosauroidea) that survived to the latest Mesozoic. In: Natural Sciences . Vol. 97, No. 1, 2009, pp. 71-78, doi: 10.1007 / s00114-009-0614-x .