Noasaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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Skeletal restoration showing known remains | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | Theropoda |
Clade: | †Abelisauria |
Family: | †Noasauridae |
Subfamily: | †Noasaurinae |
Genus: | †Noasaurus Bonaparte & Powell, 1980 |
Species: | †N. leali
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Binomial name | |
†Noasaurus leali Bonaparte & Powell, 1980
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Noasaurus ("Northwestern Argentina lizard") is a genus of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur genus from the late Campanian-Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) of Argentina. The type and only species is N. leali. The fragmentary holotype specimen of Noasaurus, PVL 4061, was discovered in the 1970s by Jaime Eduardo Powell and José Fernando Bonaparte and comes from strata from the Lecho Formation. When described in 1980, it was believed to be a coelurosaur, and was assigned to a family of its own; this family, Noasauridae, still exists, though has been reassigned to Ceratosauria.
Noasaurus was a fairly small theropod, with PVL 4061 measuring somewhere between 1.6–2 m (5.2–6.6 ft) in length. Initially, it was believed that two unguals (claws) found alongside the holotype were evidence of raptorial foot claws, like those of dromaeosaurids. However, it is now known that they belonged to Noasaurus' forelimbs, and were thus similar to those of spinosaurids. Therefore, rather than converging on dromaeosaurids, it may have been an opportunistic mesopredator, feeding on small vertebrates, including fish.