Gnathovorax cabreirai: a new early dinosaur and the origin and initial radiation of predatory dinosaurs.

ABSTRACT: Predatory dinosaurs were an important ecological component of terrestrial Mesozoic ecosystems. Though theropod dinosaurs carried this role during the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods (and probably the post-Carnian portion of the Triassic), it is difficult to depict the Carnian scenario, due to the scarcity of fossils. Until now, knowledge on the earliest predatory dinosaurs mostly relies on herrerasaurids recorded in Carnian strata of South America. Phylogenetic investigations recovered the clade in different positions within Dinosauria, whereas fewer studies challenged its monophyly. Although herrerasaurid fossils are much better recorded in present-day Argentina than in Brazil, Argentinean strata so far yielded no fairly complete skeleton representing a single individual. Here, we describ

SUBMITTER: Pacheco C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6844243 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature