A reappraisal of the cretaceous non-avian dinosaur faunas from Australia and New Zealand: Evidence for their Gondwanan affinities

Agnolin, Federico L.., Ezcurra, Martin D., Pais, Diego F. and Salisbury, Steven W. (2010) A reappraisal of the cretaceous non-avian dinosaur faunas from Australia and New Zealand: Evidence for their Gondwanan affinities. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 8 2: 257-300.

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Author Agnolin, Federico L..
Ezcurra, Martin D.
Pais, Diego F.
Salisbury, Steven W.
Title A reappraisal of the cretaceous non-avian dinosaur faunas from Australia and New Zealand: Evidence for their Gondwanan affinities
Journal name Journal of Systematic Palaeontology  (ERA 2012 Listed)    (ERA 2010 Rank B)   Check publisher's open access policy
Publication date 2010-06
Sub-type Article
Year available 2010
DOI 10.1080/14772011003594870
Volume number 8
Issue number 2
ISSN 1477-2019; 1478-0941
Start page 257
End page 300
Total pages 44
Place of publication London, U.K.
Publisher Cambridge University Press for the Natural History Museum
Collection year 2011
Language eng
Subject 970104 Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences
040308 Palaeontology (incl.Palynology)
970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences
060301 Animal Systematics and Taxonomy
Formatted abstract It has often been assumed that Australasian Cretaceous dinosaur faunas were for the most part endemic, but with some Laurasian affinities. In this regard, some Australasian dinosaurs have been considered Jurassic relicts, while others were thought to represent typical Laurasian forms or endemic taxa. Furthermore, it has been proposed that some dinosaurian lineages, namely oviraptorosaurians, dromaeosaurids, ornithomimosaurians and protoceratopsians, may have originated in Australia before dispersing to Asia during the Early Cretaceous. Here we provide a detailed review of Cretaceous non-avian dinosaurs from Australia and New Zealand, and compare them with taxa from other Gondwanan landmasses. Our results challenge the traditional view of Australian dinosaur faunas, with the majority of taxa displaying affinities that are concordant with current palaeobiogeographic models of Gondwanan terrestrial vertebrate faunal distribution. We reinterpret putative Australian 'hypsilophodontids' as basal ornithopods (some of them probably related to South American forms), and the recently described protoceratopsians are referred to Genasauria indet. and Ornithopoda indet. Among Theropoda, the Australian pigmy 'Allosaurus' is referred to the typical Gondwanan clade Abelisauroidea. Similarities are also observed between the enigmatic Australian theropod Rapator, Australovenator and the South American carcharodontosaurian Megaraptor. Timimus and putative oviraptorosaurians are referred to Dromaeosauridae. The present revision demonstrates that Australia's non-avian Cretaceous dinosaurian faunas were reminiscent of those found in other, roughly contemporaneous, Gondwanan landmasses, and are suggestive of faunal interchange with these regions via Antarctica.
© 2010 The Natural History Museum.
Keyword Australia
New Zealand
Cretaceous
Gondwana
Dinosauria
Polar dinosaurs
Predatory dinosaur
Carcharodontosaurid Dinosauria
Megaraptor-Namunhuaiquii
Abelisauroid Dinosauria
Carnosaur Dinosauria
Northeastern China
South-America
Theropoda
Patagonia
Q-Index Code C1
Q-Index Status Confirmed Code
Institutional Status UQ

Document type: Journal Article
Sub-type: Article
Collections: Official 2011 Collection
School of Biological Sciences Publications
 
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