Noasaurus
Named after the Noroeste Argentino (northwestern Argentina) region, combined with Greek 'sauros' (lizard); meaning 'Northwestern Argentina lizard'.
Noasaurus is a genus of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur from the Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) of Argentina. The type and only species is N. leali. The fragmentary holotype specimen of Noasaurus, PVL 4061, consisting of a few cranial and postcranial bones, was discovered from strata from the Lecho Formation of Southern Salta in 1975 by a team led by José Fernando Bonaparte. When described by Bonaparte and in PhD student Jaime Powell in 1980, it was believed to be a coelurosaur theropod and assigned to a family of its own; this family, Noasauridae, still exists, though has been reassigned to Ceratosauria.
Species
Noasaurus leali Bonaparte & Powell, 1980
Type species
Named for Juan Carlos Leal, the discoverer of the El Brete fossil site in Argentina where the holotype was found.
- Holotype
- PVL 4061 , Colección de Paleontologia de Vertebrados de la Fundación Instituto Miguel Lillo
- Horizon
- middle Lecho Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
- Locality
- El Brete, Salta, Argentina
References
- Bonaparte, J. F.; Powell, J. E. (1980). A continental assemblage of tetrapods from the Upper Cretaceous beds of El Brete, northwestern Argentina (Sauropoda-Coelurosauria-Carnosauria-Aves). Mémoires de la Société Géologique de France, Nouvelle Série 139: 19-28. bonaparte1980a
-
Paul, G. S. (2024). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (3rd ed.). Princeton University Press.
Source of the appearance features.
paul2024a -
Hendrickx, C.; Cerroni, M. A.; Agnolín, F. L.; Catalano, S.; Ribeiro, C. F.; Delcourt, R. (2024). Osteology, relationship, and feeding ecology of the theropod dinosaur Noasaurus leali, from the Late Cretaceous of North-Western Argentina. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 202(4): zlae150. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae150
Places the holotype 22 m above the base of the Lecho Formation.
hendrickx2024a