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[dinosaur] Megaraptorid theropod partial skeletons from Upper Cretaceous of Argentina (free pdf)




Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com

A new paper that is not yet posted officially online for the paywalled journal Annals of the Carnegie Museum but is available through Research Gate as a free pdf:


Matthew C. Lamanna, Gabriel A. CasaL & RubÃn D. F. MartÃnez (2020)
Megaraptorid (Theropoda: Tetanurae) partial skeletons from the Upper Cretaceous Bajo Barreal Formation of Central Patagonia, Argentina: implications for the evolution of large body size in Gondwanan megaraptorans.
Annals of Carnegie Museum 86(3): 255-294
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7934/P3822
[No official link for now, but the pdf is posted for free in Research Gate]

Free pdf:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346643017_MEGARAPTORID_THEROPODA_TETANURAE_PARTIAL_SKELETONS_FROM_THE_UPPER_CRETACEOUS_BAJO_BARREAL_FORMATION_OF_CENTRAL_PATAGONIA_ARGENTINA_IMPLICATIONS_FOR_THE_EVOLUTION_OF_LARGE_BODY_SIZE_IN_GONDWANAN_MEGARA



We describe two partial postcranial skeletons belonging to the enigmatic theropod dinosaur clade Megaraptoridae from the Upper Cretaceous (lower Cenomanian-upper Turonian) Bajo Barreal Formation of southern Chubut Province, central Patagonia, Argentina. The specimens are assigned to Megaraptoridae due to their possession of multiple anatomical features that are considered synapomorphies of that predatory dinosaur group, such as a greatly enlarged, laterally compressed ungual of manual digit I that possesses asymmetrical lateral and medial vascular grooves. Overlapping elements of the two skeletons are nearly identical in morphology, suggesting that they probably represent the same taxon, a large-bodied theropod that was previously unknown from the early Late Cretaceous of southern South America. The Bajo Barreal specimens constitute the most ancient unquestionable records of Megaraptoridae from that continent, and exhibit particularly strong osteological resemblances to penecontemporaneous megaraptorids from the Winton Formation of Australia. Phylogenetic analysis recovers the unnamed Bajo Barreal taxon as the earliest-diverging South American megaraptorid and the oldest-known representative of this clade that likely attained a body length of at least seven meters and a mass of at least one metric ton. Overall, the balance of the evidence suggests that megaraptorids originated in eastern Gondwana (Australia) during the Early Cretaceous, then subsequently dispersed to western Gondwana (South America) during the mid-Cretaceous, where they attained substantially larger body sizes, ultimately coming to occupy the apex predator niches in their respective habitats.

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Also, with data posted in Morphobank Project with images

https://morphobank.org/index.php/Projects/ProjectOverview/project_id/3822

Project DOI: 10.7934/P3822, http://dx.doi.org/10.7934/P3822

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