A reanalysis of Murusraptor barrosaensis Coria & Currie (2016) affords new evidence about the phylogenetical relationships of Megaraptora

ALEXIS M. ARANCIAGA ROLANDO; FERNANDO E. NOVAS; FEDERICO L. AGNOLIN

CRETACEOUS RESEARCH (PRINT)

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2018

0195-6671

Megaraptorids are enigmatic Gondwanan theropods of uncertain phylogenetic relationships. They were recently nested within dispared disparate theropod clades: Allosauroidea or Tyrannosauroidea. Murusraptor barrosaensis is a megaraptorid theropod coming from Upper Cretaceous beds of Patagonia. This specimen is represented by abundant skull, axial and hindlimb elements that make what makes it the most complete megaraptoran known up to the date. Here, we conduct an exhaustive morphological analysis of Murusraptor with the aim to recover novel phylogenetically informative features. In the present contribution, megaraptorans were compared with diverse theropods, particularly allosauroids and tyrannosauroids. On the basis of these comparisons, megaraptorans are result particularly similar to juvenile specimens of tyrannosaurids. Both a a share lacrimal with a long anterior prosess, corneal process, and lateral pneumatic fenestra; square-shaped and dorsoventrally low frontals; parietals with low well-developed sagittal and nuchal crests, among other features. This novel information was added to a comprehensive data matrix including recodingsrecodifications from the original study and a wide sampling of basal coelurosaurs. This analysis nests megaraptorans as basal members of Coelurosauria (supported by 20 derived features) and particularly within Tyrannosauroidea (supported by more than 20 synapomorphies).