REASSESSMENT OF PARVICURSORINAE (THEROPODA, ALVAREZSAURIDAE) FROM THE BISSEKTY FORMATION (TURONIAN) AT EASTERN EUROPE

WINDHOLZ G.J.; MESO J.

Congreso; Reunión de Comunicaciones de la Asociación Paleontológica Argentina; 2020

A.P.A.

Parvicursorinae is a subclade of alvarezaurid theropods, composed by forms from the Upper Cretaceous of Laurasia. In 2017, Averianov and Sues described fragmentary remains (ZIN PH 2440/16, ZIN PH 2441/16, ZIN PH 2442/16, ZIN PH 2443/16, ZIN PH 2444/16, ZIN PH 2445/16, ZIN PH 2446/16) assigned to the aforementioned subclade, from Bissekty Formation (Turonian; Upper Cretaceous) of Uzbekistan, being one of the oldest records of this subclade in the Northern Hemisphere. We evaluated the phylogenetic relationships of these specimens for the first time in a cladistic context, including it in a data matrix by 1000 characters and 171 avian and non-avian theropod taxa. A phylogenetic analysis was performed using TNT. A strict consensus recovered the Bissekty alvarezsaurid as a parvicursorine theropod based in the presence of grooves passes through foramina on the ventral surface of the proximal end of ungual I-2. Also, the analysis shows to Bissekty alvarezsaurid as the sister group of Qiupanykus zhangi Lü, Xu, Chang, Jia, Zhang, Gao, Zhang, Zhang and Ding (2018), based on the presence of mid-posterior caudal vertebrae 3-4 times longer than wide. We confirm paleobiogeographic previous hypotheses, indicating that this group had an origin in Asia.