Bahariasauridae Explained

Bahariasauridae is a potential family of averostran theropods that might include a handful of African and South American genera, such as Aoniraptor, Bahariasaurus, Deltadromeus, and Gualicho.^[1] The placement of these theropods is controversial, with some studies placing them as basal ceratosaurs possibly related to Noasauridae (which they may also include the otherwise noasaurid subfamily Elaphrosaurinae), others classifying them as megaraptorans,^{[1] [2]} basal neovenatorids,^[3] or basal coelurosaurs.^{[4] [5]} There is also a possibility the group might not be monophyletic, as a monograph on the vertebrate diversity in the Kem Kem Beds published in 2020 found Bahariasaurus to be nomen dubium.^[6] In the same paper Deltadromeus is classified as an noasaurid, a result also recovered by some previous studies.^{[7] [8] [9]} A 2024 phylogenetic analysis found Aoniraptor, Bahariasaurus, Deltadromeus, and Gualicho to form a monophyletic clade as the sister taxon to Elaphrosaurus near the base of Ceratosauria.^[10]

Notes and References

1. Motta . Matías J. . Aranciaga Rolando . Alexis M. . Rozadilla . Sebastián . Agnolín . Federico E. . Chimento . Nicolás R. . Egli . Federico Brissón . Novas . Fernando E. . June 2016 . New theropod fauna from the Upper Cretaceous (Huincul Formation) of northwestern Patagonia, Argentina . New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin . 71 . 231–253 . ResearchGate.
2. Samathi . A. . Chanthasit . P. . Martin Sander . P. . May 2019 . Two new basal coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs from the Lower Cretaceous Sao Khua Formation of Thailand. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. en . 10.4202/app.00540.2018. free .
3. Apesteguía S, Smith ND, Juárez Valieri R, Makovicky PJ . An Unusual New Theropod with a Didactyl Manus from the Upper Cretaceous of Patagonia, Argentina . PLOS ONE . 11 . 7 . e0157793 . 2016 . 27410683 . 4943716 . 10.1371/journal.pone.0157793 . 2016PLoSO..1157793A . free .
4. Juan D. Porfiri . Rubén D. Juárez Valieri . Domenica D.D. Santos . Matthew C. Lamanna . 2018 . A new megaraptoran theropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Bajo de la Carpa Formation of northwestern Patagonia . Cretaceous Research . 89 . 302–319. 10.1016/j.cretres.2018.03.014 . 2018CrRes..89..302P . 134117648 .
5. Delcourt . R. . Grillo . O. N. . Tyrannosauroids from the Southern Hemisphere: Implications for biogeography, evolution, and taxonomy . 10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.09.003 . Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology . 511 . 379–387 . 2018 . 2018PPP...511..379D . 133830150 .
6. Ibrahim. Nizar. Nizar Ibrahim. Sereno. Paul C.. Paul Sereno. Varricchio. David J.. Martill. David M.. Dutheil. Didier B.. Unwin. David M.. Baidder. Lahssen. Larsson. Hans C. E.. Zouhri. Samir. Kaoukaya. Abdelhadi. 2020-04-21. Geology and paleontology of the Upper Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of eastern Morocco. ZooKeys. en. 928. 1–216. 10.3897/zookeys.928.47517. 32362741. 7188693. 1313-2970. free. 2020ZooK..928....1I .
7. Wilson . Jeffrey A. . Sereno . Paul C. . Srivastava . Suresh . Bhatt . Devendra K. . Khosla . Ashu . Sahni . Ashok . 2003 . A new abelisaurid (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Lameta Formation (Cretaceous, Maastrichtian) of India . Contr. Mus. Palaeont. Univ. Mich. . 31 . 1–42.
8. Rauhut, O.W.M., and Carrano, M.T. (2016). The theropod dinosaur Elaphrosaurus bambergi Janensch, 1920, from the Late Jurassic of Tendaguru, Tanzania. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, (advance online publication)
9. Wang . S. . Stiegler . J. . Amiot . R. . Wang . X. . Du . G.-H. . Clark . J.M. . Xu . X. . 2017 . Extreme Ontogenetic Changes in a Ceratosaurian Theropod . Current Biology . 27 . 1 . 144–148 . 10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.043 . 28017609 . free . 2017CBio...27..144W . 441498.
10. Cau . Andrea . 2024 . A Unified Framework for Predatory Dinosaur Macroevolution . Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana . 63 . 1 . 1–19 . 10.4435/BSPI.2024.08 . 0375-7633.