Corythoraptor
From Greek korythos, 'helmet', + Latin raptor, 'thief'; means 'helmeted thief', referring to its tall cassowary-like head crest
Corythoraptor is a genus of oviraptorid dinosaur from the late Maastrichtian Nanxiong Formation of South China. It contains one species, C. jacobsi, known from a single well-preserved skeleton, and named after paleontologist Louis L. Jacobs. It bears a tall crest similar to that of the modern cassowary, and possibly had a similar functionality of display and resonance to detect lower-frequency sounds.
Under dispute
Corythoraptor was recovered as the sister of Huanansaurus within Oviraptoridae by its describers (Lü and colleagues, 2017), and Funston and colleagues (2020) place the pair in Citipatiinae. Cau (2024) treated it as the mature form of Banji, coding the two in a single unit on shared nasal-crest and premaxillary features and regarding Corythoraptor as a junior synonym; Hao and colleagues (2024) list the two as separate taxa.
Diagnosis
- Distinct cassowary-like helmet on the skull, highly pneumatic and very thin, with highest point of the crest projecting above the orbit.
- No pleurocoels on the centra of the second through fourth cervical vertebrae (pleurocoels present from fifth through twelfth cervical vertebrae).
- Neck length twice as long as the dorsal vertebral column, and slightly longer than the entire forelimb including the manus.
- Supranarial process of the premaxilla bears two processes: a short posterodorsally extending process and a long process forming most of the anterodorsal process of the premaxilla.
- Infratemporal fenestra dorsoventrally elongate and narrow anteroposteriorly; narial opening much longer than wide, long axis parallel to dorsal margin of antorbital fenestra.
- Lesser trochanter (cranial trochanter) completely fused with the greater trochanter; distal ends of shafts of metatarsal II straight and metatarsal IV laterally deflected.
Species
Corythoraptor jacobsi Lü et al., 2017
Type species
Named for American vertebrate paleontologist Louis L. Jacobs, who mentored three of the describing authors during their doctoral studies at Southern Methodist University.
- Holotype
- JPM-2015-001 , Jehol Paleontological Museum
- Material
- Almost complete skeleton with skull and lower jaw.
- Horizon
- Nanxiong Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
- Locality
- Ganzhou Railway Station, Jiangxi, China
References
-
Lü, J.; Li, G.; Kundrát, M.; Lee, Y. N.; Sun, Z.; Kobayashi, Y.; Shen, C.; Teng, F.; Liu, H. (2017). High diversity of the Ganzhou Oviraptorid Fauna increased by a new "cassowary-like" crested species. Scientific Reports 7(1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-05016-6
Named Corythoraptor and recovered it as the sister of Huanansaurus.
lü2017a -
Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.
Source of the mass and hip height estimates, and the appearance features. Treats Corythoraptor as a valid oviraptorid.
jones2026c -
Cau, A. (2024). A Unified Framework for Predatory Dinosaur Macroevolution. Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana 63(1): 1-19. doi:10.4435/BSPI.2024.08
Coded Corythoraptor with the immature Banji holotype as one unit, regarding Corythoraptor as a junior synonym of Banji.
cau2024a -
Funston, G. F.; Chinzorig, T.; Tsogtbaatar, K.; Kobayashi, Y.; Sullivan, C.; Currie, P. J. (2020). A new two-fingered dinosaur sheds light on the radiation of Oviraptorosauria. Royal Society Open Science 7(10): 201184. The Royal Society. doi:10.1098/rsos.201184
Recovered Corythoraptor as sister taxon of Huanansaurus within Citipatiinae.
funston2020a -
Hao, M.; Li, Z.; Wang, Z.; Wang, S.; Ma, F.; Qinggele; Logan King, J.; Pei, R.; Zhao, Q.; Xu, X. (2024). A new oviraptorosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Miaogou Formation of western Inner Mongolia, China. Cretaceous Research 167(78): 106023. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2024.106023
Lists Banji and Corythoraptor as separate taxa.
hao2024a