Open Paleo

Avetheropoda

Paul, 1988

Its genera lived 184.2–66.0 million years ago Early Jurassic–Late Cretaceous

Avetheropoda is a clade of tetanuran theropod dinosaurs comprising Allosaurus, modern birds, and all descendants of their most recent common ancestor. In effect it unites the two great advanced theropod lineages, the allosauroid carnosaurs and the coelurosaurs, which diverge from one another at the base of the group; it is often treated as equivalent to Neotetanurae (Carrano and colleagues, 2012). Avetheropods account for the bulk of predatory dinosaur diversity of the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous, and they include the only theropods to survive to the present day, the living birds. They are set apart from more basal tetanurans such as the megalosauroids by skeletal details, including a femoral head oriented fully medially rather than anteromedially. The group is recovered in many analyses (Carrano and colleagues, 2012), though Rauhut and colleagues (2024), like some earlier studies, instead unite allosauroids and megalosauroids as Carnosauria.

Diagnosis

  1. Maxillary fenestra present and well-developed
  2. Reduced or absent prefrontal bone
  3. Enlarged orbit relative to skull length
  4. Fused interdental plates
  5. Opisthopubic or mesopubic pelvis in derived members

Clades within Avetheropoda

Genera placed directly in Avetheropoda

  • Aorun Choiniere et al., 2013 Callovian (165.3–161.5 Ma)Chinaincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Chilantaisaurus Hu, 1964 Aptian–Albian (121.4–100.5 Ma)Chinaincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Datanglong Mo et al., 2014 Aptian (121.4–113.2 Ma)Chinaincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Gualicho Apesteguía et al., 2016 Cenomanian–Turonian (100.5–89.8 Ma)Argentinaincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Lourinhanosaurus Mateus, 1998 Kimmeridgian–Tithonian (154.8–143.1 Ma)Portugalincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Nedcolbertia Kirkland et al., 1998 Valanginian (137.1–132.6 Ma)United Statesincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Shanyangosaurus Xue et al., 1996 Late CretaceousChinaincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Shaochilong Brusatte et al., 2009 Aptian–Albian (121.4–100.5 Ma)Chinaincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Unquillosaurus Powell, 1979 Campanian–Maastrichtian (83.6–66.0 Ma)Argentinaincertae sedisunder dispute

References

  1. Paul, G. S. (1988). Predatory Dinosaurs of the World. Simon & Schuster, New York 1-464.

    Named Avetheropoda for the bird-like theropods, from compsognathids and coelurids to the allosaur-tyrannosaur group and the protobirds.

    paul1988a
  2. Holtz, T. R.; Molnar, R. E.; Currie, P. J. (2004). Basal Tetanurae. The Dinosauria, Second Edition (Weishampel, D. B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H., eds.) 71-110. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Defined Avetheropoda as Allosaurus fragilis, Passer domesticus, their most recent common ancestor and all its descendants.

    holtz2004a
  3. Carrano, M. T.; Benson, R. B. J.; Sampson, S. D. (2012). The phylogeny of Tetanurae (Dinosauria: Theropoda). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 10(2): 211-300. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2011.630927

    Recovered Avetheropoda and treated Neotetanurae as its synonym in a classification of Tetanurae.

    carrano2012a
  4. Rauhut, O. W. M.; Bakirov, A. A.; Wings, O.; Fernandes, A. E.; Hübner, T. R. (2024). A new theropod dinosaur from the Callovian Balabansai Formation of Kyrgyzstan. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 201(4). Oxford University Press (OUP). doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae090

    Described a new theropod from the Callovian Balabansai Formation and recovered Carnosauria, uniting Megalosauroidea and Allosauroidea, rather than Avetheropoda.

    rauhut2024a