The body plan of Halszkaraptor escuilliei (Dinosauria, Theropoda) is not a transitional form along the evolution of dromaeosaurid hypercarnivory.

ABSTRACT: The dromaeosaurid theropod Halszkaraptor escuilliei is characterized by several unusual features absent in other paravians, part of which has been interpreted as diagnostic of a novel lineage adapted to a semiaquatic ecology. Recently, these evolutionary and ecological interpretations have been challenged, and Halszkaraptor has been claimed to be a transitional form between non-dromaeosaurid maniraptoriforms and other dromaeosaurids: following that reevaluation, its peculiar body plan would represent the retention of several maniraptoran plesiomorphies, lost among other dromaeosaurids, and not an adaptation to a novel ecology. This alternative scenario is here carefully investigated and tested. It is shown that most statements supporting this scenario are based on misinterpretation of anat

SUBMITTER: Cau A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7047864 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature