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PWNZ3R-Dragon — Composite Megaraptorid Reconstruction (OUTDATED)
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#america #argentina #australia #carnosaur #composite #dinosaur #fossil #gondwana #megaraptor #reconstruction #skeletal #skeleton #south #theropod #tyrannosaur #tyrannosauroid #gondwanan #burkei #aerosteon #wintonensis #neovenatorid #namunhuaiquii #neovenatoridae #megaraptora #megaraptoran #megaraptorid #megaraptoridae #tyrannoisauroidea #orkoraptor #australovenator
Published: 2014-12-18 09:41:54 +0000 UTC; Views: 10329; Favourites: 85; Downloads: 54
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Description
THIS ONE IS OUTDATED. PLEASE REFER TO THIS VERSION:pwnz3r-dragon.deviantart.com/a…
Megaraptorids. That unusual and elusive bunch of Gondwanan theropods that no one ever knew a thing about. Mostly known from partial limb fragments, people thought that they must've been some offshoot bunch of carnosaur or spinosaur type theropods, leaning more towards the Neovenatorids.
Just as we got comfortable with this idea, a juvenile Megaraptor specimen was found and for the first time ever, we got skull pieces. Yay! More things for this bunch of dinosaurs. But what the hell?
It was a longirostrine tyrannosauroid!?
So, we have a clade of big armed, lanky, narrow snounted, small headed tyrannosaurs from the wrong parts of the world. Megaraptorids were shaping up to be essentially the exact opposite of what tyrannosauroids should be. So what would a whole one be like? What was going on?!
Well if I've done this correctly, welll... That skeleton, really.
The composite consists of the following:
The hips and vertebrae consist of known and inferred material from Aerosteon (Sereno et al. 2008).
The legs and arms were Australovenator (White et al. 2013; White et al. 2012; Hocknull et al. 2009).
The hands, ulna and scapula were swapped from Australovenator and Aerosteon with available Megaraptor parts (Porfiri et al. 2007; Novas & Calvo, 2009).
The dentary was Australovenator (Hocknull et al 2009).
The skull was modified from the restored juvenile Megaraptor skull (Porfiri et al 2014) to match known Aerosteon and Orkoraptor skull fragments (Sereno et al. 2008; Novas et al. 2008).
The posterior sections of the lower jaw, the cervical and dorsal ribs, sternum and gastrilia, the ischium and the caudal vertebrae were speculative (I am aware that a few ribs and gastralia are known for Australovenator, but I wasn't sure how to apply them in context so I ommitted them for the time being).
Anyway, this is what I ended up with. My available image resources for megaraptords in general were fairly sparse so if I've incorrectly scaled some of the material, or there's important remains that we have but I've missed, I'm more than happy to make adjustments based on any new data.
EDIT: Oh yeah, one last thing. I'd like to see what people do with this skeletal. If you use it as a reference, link me to the result please!
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Comments: 26
Partly. It's a composite of several species. Details are in the description.
I'm currently working on a revision of this skeletal since new information's come up though.
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But I found out that megaraptorids are carnosaurs again! Since good news that Gualicho is discovered to be a look-alike of Tyrannosaurus, but Gualicho is a carnosaur, while T.rex is a coelurosaur. And the bad news, that Deltadromeus is NO longer a ceratosaur, due to Gualicho's discovery.
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The paper about Aoniraptor as well put them among the tyrannosauroids IIRC (as a non-megaraptorid megaraptoran). And we're still awaiting the formal description of our oldest and apparently most basal megaraptoran, "Lightning Claw" (which is likely Rapator). And that could have huge implications on their placement among the theropod family tree.
On another note, it's interesting how at no point Gualicho and Aoniraptor were ever formally compared with each other, despite being two potential megaraptorans from the same time and location, and both with possible relations to bahariasauridae. I suppose that's all to do with how they were practically described separately within a matter of weeks of each other. However, since the papers came out, there have been talks (by that, I mean blog posts*) that imply they are likely synonymous, with Gualicho taking the name. Their place among megaraptora isn't concrete either, so they, and bahariasauridae, could still very well be carnosaurs, or even ceratosaurs, without actually altering the placement of megaraptora as a whole.
If it turns out that Gualicho, Aoniraptor, Deltadromeus and Bahariasaurus are in fact carnosaurs (as opposed to ceratosaurs or megaraptorans), I wonder if that brings up the possibility that whatever group they form are in fact synonymous with neovenatoridae...
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The same study with the new Murusraptor shows that they are either Carnosaurs or Tyrannosauroids, and seeing as how Megaraptorans are very "Tyrannosaur" like, it's really not a stretch to still consider them Tyrannosauroids. Each scenario is possible. Further research is needed though to know for sure. It's possible, if not likely, that the only Carnosaurian "Megaraptoran" is Neovenator and everything else is a Tyrannosauroid.
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Sure, that's what it's for!
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So I've used this as a reference for this: megalotitan.deviantart.com/art… I hope you like it
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hey i made a picture jusing you're skeletal check it out in my gallery
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This is amazing. IDK how often you check your deviantart but this is Scott Hartman level of awesome work. I hope to see(And have permission to use) amazing skeletals like this.
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I included a frightened megaraptorid based on this in trefrex.deviantart.com/art/Dre…
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So here be Megaraptor...okay fine, fine...this is really bizarre, with those lanky legs and...freakishly small heads!
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Great work on it! and a good list of references used. Carnosaurs or not, are certainly unusual theropods
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Indeed. Unusual doesn't even cut it with these things. They're the opposite of what's considered "normal" for tyrannosauroids with their big, 3 fingered hands and small, slender heads. Even weirder when you realise that between the Megaraptorids, Proceratosaurids and basal things like Dilong, this general build was probably the tyrannosauroid norm.
And that makes more derived tyrannosaurids, with their big heads and tiny arms, all the more ridiculous.
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I wondering if megaraptorids are related in some way to Dryptosaurus, that have big hand claws too. Or maybe is parallel evolution?
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I'm not aware of any formal study behind this, and I've not looked much into Dryptosaurus myself, but I'd genuinely not be surprised if it was a megaraptorid based on my limited knowledge.
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No, is not in any formal publication, is just that I've seen certain resemblance between both Dryptosaurus and megaraptorids... of course could be just a coincidence!
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FINALLY I GET TO SEE THIS SON OF A BARYONYX!
It does look pretty weird though, its hands are almost bigger than its face.
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Yeah, you don't just get bigass thumb claws like that for nothing.
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that's because it was using them as its primary weapons.
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