Siats (dinosaur)
- North America (Utah )
- Siats meekerorum
Siats is an extinct genus theropod dinosaur that lived around 98 million years ago during the early Cretaceous ( Cenomanian ) in present-day Utah - and thus the first Neovenatoride, whose remains were found in North America.
Features
The fossils found have Siats than two-legged predators. The remains described are associated with a young, due to unfused vertebral arches. The taxon can be characterized by seven diagnostic characters ( including four autapomorphies ). These include, among others, the short (about half as high as the vertebrae ) and broad spinous processes of the vertebrae and the triangular cross-section of some of the cervical vertebrae.
Discovery and naming
The first bone of a Siats was discovered in 2008 by an expedition of Field Museum of Natural History at the foot of Cedar Mountain. In the following two years, was found at the same place more remains, including those of a putative second copy.
Was named the genus after a man-eating monsters from a legend of the Ute, Native American, whose settlement area once extended, inter alia, Utah. The only previously described species and the type species is Siats meekerorum. The species name honors the geologist John Caldwell Meeker and his daughter Lis, who participated as a research assistant on the project.
System
Siats is classified within the Carnosauria in the Neovenatoridae family. Within this family Siats together with Aerosteon, Mega Raptor, Australovenator and Fukuiraptor the group Megaraptora. However, the exact position of Siats in this group is not sure because the remains are too fragmentary. Below is a cladogram by Zanno & Makovicky (2013 ):
Neovenator
Siats
Australovenator
Fukuiraptor
Aerosteon
Mega Raptor