Betasuchus

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Betasuchus
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Cast of the femur
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Clade: †Ceratosauria
Clade: †
Neoceratosauria
Superfamily: †Abelisauroidea
Genus: †Betasuchus
von Huene, 1932
Species:
†B. bredai
Binomial name
†Betasuchus bredai
(Seeley, 1883 [originally Megalosaurus])
Synonyms

Betasuchus is a

the Netherlands and the only non-avian theropod found in the Maastrichtian Beds
.

Discovery

Speculative reconstruction as an abelisaurid, based on relatives

Its fossil,

British Museum of Natural History after his death in 1867. In 1892 Belgian/Dutch/German paleontologist Johan Casimir Ubaghs referred some teeth — probably of mosasaurs — to M. bredai. Megalosaurus bredai was in 1883 the first terrestrial vertebrate named from Maastrichtian layers.[1]

A re-evaluation of the fossil by

wastebin taxon" where many unrelated carnivorous dinosaurs were lumped together. Von Huene thought that the fossil actually belonged to an ornithomimosaur, and gave it the provisional designation "Ornithomimidorum [sic][2] genus b" (in Latin
: genus b of the ornithomimids), being the second of two Megalosaurus species he was reallocating to Ornithomimidae, the first being M. lonzeensis as "Ornithomimidorum genus a". "Ornithomimidorum" is sometimes mistakenly listed as a dinosaur genus name. Von Huene referred to this designation when he formally renamed M. bredai in 1932, calling it Betasuchus (or "B crocodile" in Greek).

In 2017 its length was estimated to be 4 meters (13 feet).[citation needed]

Phylogeny

Betasuchus is known only from a single incomplete femur, so its exact relationships with other theropods have been difficult to determine. In 1972

nomen vanum: a failed emendation. Some workers in reference to the material still use M. bredai instead of Betasuchus. David Norman in 1990 listed Megalosaurus bredai as a nomen dubium
.

abelisaurid, close to Tarascosaurus and that it was distinct enough not to consider it a nomen dubium: they mentioned a more narrow femoral neck, a lack of orientation of the femoral head towards the front, the lack of an opening, or foramen, under the lesser trochanter and that the anterior face is narrower. Furthermore, at the lower end the beginnings of an anterointernal crest are visible, seeming to be homologous to the supracondylar crest of the femur of Carnotaurus
. They rejected the placement within Ornithomimidae, partly because of the much higher position of the fourth trochanter on the back of the femur.

In 1997 Betasuchus was concluded by Carpenter, Russell and Baird to be related to

Abelisauroidea
.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Zoltan Csiki-Sava, Eric Buffetaut, Attila Ősi, Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola & Stephen L. Brusatte, 2015, "Island life in the Cretaceous -- faunal composition, biogeography, evolution, and extinction of land-living vertebrates on the Late Cretaceous European archipelago", ZooKeys 469: 1-161
  2. ^ The normal genitive plural of "Ornithomimidae" is "ornithomimidarum"

References

  • Seeley (1883). "On the dinosaurs from the Maastricht beds." Q. J. Geol. Soc. London, 39: 246-253.
  • Ubaghs, C. 1892. "Sur l'origine des vallées du Limbourg hollandais". Extract Mém. Soc. belge Géol. VI; pp. 150–169
  • C. Ubaghs, "Le Megalosaurus dans la craie supérieure du Limbourg", Bull. Soc. belge Géol. Paléont. Hydrol. 6 (1893) 26–29.
  • Von Huene, F. (1926). "The carnivorous Saurischia in the Jura and Cretaceous formations, principally in Europe". Revista del Museo de La Plata 29:35-167
  • Von Huene (1932). "Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte." Monogr. Geol. Palaeontol. (Pt. I and II, Ser. I) 4, 1-361.
  • Russell, D.A. (1972). "Ostrich dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of western Canada". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 9: 375–402
  • Norman, D.B., Problematic Theropoda: "Coelurosaurs" in D.B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, H. Osmólska (eds), The Dinosauria, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1990, Ch. 13
  • Jean le Loeuff and Eric Buffetaut (1991). "Tarascosaurus salluvicus nov. gen., nov. sp.,dinosaure théropode du Crétacé supérieur du Sud de la France". Geobios, Volume 24, Issue 5, 1991, Pages 585-594
  • J. le Loeuff, "Les vertébrés continentaux du Crétacé supérieur d’Europe: paléoécologie, biostratigraphie et paléobiogéographie", Mém. Sci. Terre, Paris 92 (3) (1992) 1–273
  • K. Carpenter, D. Russell, D. Baird, R. Denton, "Redescription of the holotype of Dryptosaurus aquilungis (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of New Jersey", J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 17 (1997) 561–573
  • D.B. Weishampel, E.W.A. Mulder, R.W. Dortangs, J.W.M. Jagt, C.-M. Jianu, M.M.M. Kuypers, H.H.G. Peeters, A.S. Schulp, "Dinosaur remains from the type Maastrichtian: an update", Geol. Mijnb. 75 (1999) 357–365
  • John W.M. Jagt, Eric W.A. Mulder, Anne S. Schulp, Rudi W. Dortangs, René H.B. Fraaije, 2003, "Dinosaurs from the Maastrichtian-type area (southeastern Netherlands, northeastern Belgium)", Palevol 2 (2003) 67–76
  • Tykoski, R.S. and Rowe, T., (2004), "Ceratosauria". In: D.B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmólska (eds.), The Dinosauria, second edition, pp. 47–70, University of California Press, Berkeley

External links

  • "Betasuchus". The Theropod Database. Archived from the original on September 29, 2013.
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