Coelurosauria
Fossil of Sinosauropteryx from the Early Cretaceous of Eastern Asia and conservation of springs
- Worldwide
Coelurosauria (lat / gr:. . Hollow tail lizards ) refers to a taxon within the Theropoda Dinosaur systematics. As Coelurosaurier the birds also apply; their membership is questioned only by a few researchers.
Features
The main feature of all Coelurosauria were thin-walled bones, referred to by their name, and thus a slight physique. Most of their representatives ran on strong hind legs and had arms which were claws, which were well suited for grasping prey. The Coelurosauria were among the first dinosaurs ever, and lived on the Upper Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous period, where - apart from the birds - with the other " non-avian dinosaurs " during the mass extinction at the turn of the Paleogene (formerly " tertiary " ) perished.
In the summer of 1998, about 150 million year old skeleton of a young animal of Juravenator Starki ( " Jurassic Hunter") was recovered near Schamhaupten Altmühltal Nature Park from silicified Upper Jurassic limestones. The importance of the discovery results from the rarity of small theropods in general from that time in the fossil record, in particular the European representatives are only poorly documented.
Inside systematics
Today the Deinonychosauria and individual representatives who were formerly the Carnosauria, counted among the Coelurosauriern. Among the family Tyrannosauridae, which has long been considered one of the Carnosauria, but is now out due to its light weight body construction among Coelurosauria. Whether belonging to the family Coelurosauria Ornithomimidae also forms a separate taxon " Ornithomimosauria ", is not yet fully understood.
A model of the inner scheme of Coelurosauria according to a recent study are the following cladogram again:
Ornithomimosauria
Therizinosauroidea
Alvarezsauridae
Oviraptorosauria
Troodontidae
Dromaeosauridae
Avialae (birds )