Zupaysaurus
| Zupaysaurus | |
|---|---|
| |
| The skull of Zupaysaurus | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | Neotheropoda
|
| Genus: | †Zupaysaurus Arcucci & Coria 2003 |
| Species: | †Z. rougieri
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Zupaysaurus rougieri Arcucci & Coria 2003
| |
Zupaysaurus (predator, up to 4 metres (13 ft) long. It may have had two parallel crests running the length of its snout.
Discovery
Discovered in May 1997 by Santiago Reuil ("Vultur"), part of the crew of Guillermo Rougier, it was later described by Arcucci and Coria and published in 2003. The name Zupaysaurus is composed of the
paleontologists Andrea Arcucci and Rodolfo Coria in 2003.[1]
Description
Zupaysaurus was a medium-sized theropod. An adult
coelophysoids, Zupaysaurus has a kink in its snout, between the premaxillary and maxillary bones of the upper jaw. It is estimated that Zupaysaurus had 24 teeth and an intermandibular hinge is present in the lower jaw.[1] Only one specimen of Zupaysaurus is known to science. The holotype specimen was designated PULR-076, which consists of a nearly complete skull which was very well preserved, the right shoulder girdle, the lower right leg and ankle, and twelve vertebrae
from the neck, back, and hips. Additional material of a smaller individual found at the same site may or may not belong to Zupaysaurus.
As Zupaysaurus was originally described, the head bore two thin parallel crests on top of the skull, similar to theropods like Coelophysis kayentakatae. These crests are thought to have been formed by the nasal bones solely, unlike those of many other theropods which also incorporated the lacrimal bones. Crests on the skull were pervasive among theropods and may have been used for communicative purposes such as species or gender recognition.[4] However, more recent analysis of the skull has cast doubt on the presence of these crests in Zupaysaurus. An unpublished abstract presented at a recent conference indicated the structures initially identified as crests were in fact the lacrimal bones displaced upwards during the process of fossilization.[5]
Other cranial ornamentation included a rugose laterally-projecting lacrimal ridge on the top of the skull.
A diagnosis is a statement of the anatomical features of an organism (or group) that collectively distinguish it from all other organisms. Some, but not all, of the features in a diagnosis are also autapomorphies. An autapomorphy is a distinctive anatomical feature that is unique to a given organism or group. According to Ezcurra (2006) and Ezcurra and Novas (2006), Zupaysaurus can be distinguished based on the following characteristics: the maxillary fenestra is within the
quadratojugal (according to Ezcurra, 2006). The maxillary-jugal ventral margin describes an obtuse angle in lateral view (according to Ezcurra and Novas, 2006), a notch on the dorsal margin of the ascending process of the maxilla, relating to horizontal ramus of the lacrimal is rostrally tapering onto the forked caudal tip of the ascending process of the maxilla; (according to Ezcurra and Novas, 2006), a lacrimal with a highly pneumatized antorbital recess (according to Ezcurra and Novas, 2006), a short and square-shaped retroarticular process of the mandible (according to Ezcurra and Novas, 2006), the cnemial crest
is poorly developed (according to Ezcurra and Novas, 2006).
Classification
Zupaysaurus was classified as the earliest known
Below is a cladogram based on the phylogenetic analysis conducted by Sues et al. in 2011, showing the relationships of Zupaysaurus:[11]
| Theropoda |
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Paleoecology
Zupaysaurus was discovered in red siliciclastic sediments at the "Quebrada de los Jachaleros" locality within the
La Rioja province in Argentina. This formation has been shown by magnetostratigraphy to date to the Norian stage of the Late Triassic period, approximately 228 to 208 million years ago.[12] but has also been assigned to the slightly younger Rhaetian stage, which was approximately 208 to 201 million years ago.[13] Both specimens assigned to this genus are housed in the collection of the National University of La Rioja in La Rioja, Argentina.[1]
The
archosaurs
.
References
- ^ a b c d Arcucci, A.B. & Coria R.A. 2003. A new Triassic carnivorous dinosaur from Argentina. Ameghiniana 40(2):217-228.
- ^ Paul, Gregory S. (2010). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 75.
- ^ Molina-Pérez & Larramendi (2016). Récords y curiosidades de los dinosaurios Terópodos y otros dinosauromorfos. Spain: Larousse. p. 253.
- ^ Currie, P.J. & Zhao X. 1993. A new carnosaur (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Jurassic of Xinjiang, People's Republic of China. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 30: 2037-2081.
- ^ a b Ezcurra, M.D. & Novas, F.E. 2005. Phylogenetic relationships of the Triassic theropod Zupaysaurus rougieri from NW Argentina. Presented in August 2005 during the II Latin American Congress of Vertebrate Paleontology Archived May 4, 2006, at the Wayback Machine in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This analysis will be published in peer-reviewed print form later in 2006. A summary of the talk can be seen here.
- ^ Carrano, M.T., Hutchinson, J.R., & Sampson, S.D. 2005. New information on Segisaurus halli, a small theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of Arizona. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25(4): 835-849.
- ^ Tykoski, 2005. Anatomy, ontogeny and phylogeny of coelophysoid theropods. PhD Dissertation. University of Texas at Austin. 553 pp.
- ^ Yates, A.M., 2006 (for 2005). "A new theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of South Africa and its implications for the early evolution of theropods." Palaeontologia Africana, 41: 105-122.
- ^ Smith N.D., Makovicky P. J., Hammer W. R. & Currie P. J. 2007 Osteology of Cryolophosaurus ellioti (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Early Jurassic of Antarctica and implications for early theropod evolution. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 151, 377–421.
- ^ Nesbitt, S. J., Smith, N. D., Irmis, R. B., Turner, A. H., Downs, A., & M. A. Norell. 2009. A complete skeleton of a Late Triassic saurischian and the early evolution of dinosaurs. Science 326:1530-1533.
- ^ Hans-Dieter Sues, Sterling J. Nesbitt, David S. Berman and Amy C. Henrici (2011). "A late-surviving basal theropod dinosaur from the latest Triassic of North America". Proceedings of the Royal Society B 278 (1723): 3459–3464
- ^ a b Weishampel, D.B., Barrett, P.M., Coria, R.A., Le Loueff, J., Xu X., Zhao X., Sahni, A., Gomani, E.M.P., & Noto, C.R. 2004. Dinosaur distribution. In: Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., & Osmólska, H. (Eds.). The Dinosauria (2nd Edition). Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 517-606.
- ^ Heckert, A.B. & Lucas, S.G. 1998. Global correlation of the Triassic theropod record. Gaia 15: 63-74. [not printed until 2000]
External links
- Zupaysaurus entry in The Theropod Database.
