Coelurosauria
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The Coelurosauria is a group of theropod dinosaurs that includes the subgroups Tyrannosauroidea, Ornithomimosauria, and Maniraptora.
Description
Coelurosaur characteristics included an extended sacrum, a distally stiffened tail and a bowed ulna. The tibia is also characteristically longer than the femur, in coelurosaurs. Recent fossil evidence shows that some coelurosaurs were feathered and it is conceivable (and indeed the most parsimonious hypothesis) that feathers may have been a feature of the entire group.Most coelurosaurs were bipedal predators and the group includes some of the largest (Tyrannosaurus) and smallest (Microraptor) carnivorous dinosaurs discovered thus far. Modern birds are classified by most palaeontologists as an extant group of coelurosaurs (in the subgroup Maniraptora).
Examples of the Coelurosaur footprints have been found at the Lark Quarry Dinosaur Stampede, Queensland, Australia.
Traditional 'Coelurosaurs'
Like Carnosauria for large theropods, the infraorder Coelurosauria had traditionally been used as a 'dumping ground' for all small theropods but analysis, in the 1980s and 1990s, revealed that some 'coelurosaurs' were actually more primitive theropods, most notably the coelophysids. Additionally, some dinosaur groups long thought to belong to the Carnosauria, the tyrannosaurids, turned out to be giant coelurosaurs. The large, herbivorous/omnivorous segnosaurs, once thought to be related to either sauropods or ornithischians, have similarly turned out to be coelurosaurs.Coelurosauria is phylogenetically defined as those dinosaurs sharing a more recent common ancestor with birds than with Allosaurus.[link].
Classification
- Tetanurae
- *Infraorder COELUROSAURIA
- **Tugulusaurus
- **Family Coeluridae (paraphyletic)
- **Superfamily Tyrannosauroidea
- **Maniraptoriformes
- ***Ornithomimosauria
- ***?Family Alvarezsauridae
- ***Maniraptora
- ****Therizinosauria
- ****Oviraptorosauria
- ****Deinonychosauria
- ****Class Aves
External links
- "[Coelurosauria ]". DinoData.
- "[Lark Quarry, Queensland, Australia]". Lark Quarry.
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