Theropod dinosaurs from Argentina

EZCURRA, MARTÍN D.; FERNANDO E. NOVAS

Jornada; Jornadas Argentinas de Paleontología de Vertebrados; 2016

Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia

Theropoda includes all the dinosaurs more closely related to birds than tosauropodomorphs (long-necked dinosaurs) and ornithischians (bird-hipped dinosaurs). The oldest members of the group are early Late Triassic in age, and non-avian theropods flourished during the rest of the Mesozoic until they vanished in the Cretaceous-Palaeogene mass extinction. Theropods radiated into two main lineages, Ceratosauria and Tetanurae, which are well represented in Cretaceous rocks from Argentina. Ceratosaurians are the most taxonomicallydiverse South American non-avian theropods, including small to large-sized species, such as the iconic horned dinosaur Carnotaurus. Argentinean tetanurans are represented by multiple lineages that include some of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs known worldwide (carcharodontosaurids), the enigmatic large-clawed megaraptorans, and small to medium-sized species very closely related to avialans (e.g. unenlagiids). The Argentinean non-avian theropodrecord has been and is crucial to understand the evolutionary and palaeobiogeographical history of the group in the southern continents during the Mesozoic.