Noasauridae

Noasauridae is an extinct family of theropod dinosaurs belonging to the group Ceratosauria. They were closely related to the short-armed abelisaurids, although most noasaurids had much more traditional body types generally similar to other theropods. Their heads, on the other hand, had unusual adaptations depending on the subfamily. 'Traditional' noasaurids, sometimes grouped in the subfamily Noasaurinae, had sharp teeth which splayed outwards from a downturned lower jaw.

Noasauridae

Eduard Solà · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
CeratosauriaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 89 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 174.7 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Jurassic — about 0 of 67 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 1 of 67 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 6 of 67 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 8 of 67 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 52 of 67 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 67 occurrences177–173 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences173–169 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences169–166 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences166–162 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences162–158 Mya — about 2 occurrences158–154 Mya — about 2 occurrences154–150 Mya — about 2 occurrences150–147 Mya — about 1 occurrence128–124 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 1 occurrence120–117 Mya — about 2 occurrences117–113 Mya — about 1 occurrence113–109 Mya — about 2 occurrences109–105 Mya — about 1 occurrence105–102 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences102–98 Mya — about 5 occurrences98–94 Mya — about 6 occurrences94–90 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences90–86 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 2 occurrences83–79 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences79–75 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences75–71 Mya — about 6 occurrences71–68 Mya — about 23 occurrences68–64 Mya — about 10 occurrences161.5 Mya72.2 Mya177 Mya64 Mya

67 occurrences of Noasauridae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

67 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

22 formations

Maevarano — 15.90°S, 46.58°ELameta — 23.17°N, 79.97°ELameta — 20.35°N, 79.05°EBaharîje — 28.43°N, 28.91°EBaharîje — 28.43°N, 28.96°EShishugou — 45.15°N, 88.90°EShishugou — 45.17°N, 88.92°ETendaguru — 9.68°S, 39.22°EBajo de la Carpa — 38.94°S, 68.06°WBajo de la Carpa — 39.12°S, 67.63°WGoio-Erê — 26.78°S, 53.06°WIlek — 55.90°N, 87.96°EGara Sbaa — 30.51°N, 4.84°WLecho — 26.07°S, 65.37°WMorrison — 44.09°N, 106.78°WLa Amarga — 39.51°S, 70.07°WSamanasuk — 32.92°N, 70.15°ECerro Fortaleza — 49.95°S, 72.09°WAlcântara — 2.48°S, 44.46°W"Wonthaggi" — 38.53°S, 145.37°EChorrillo — 50.51°S, 72.56°WHuincul — 39.20°S, 69.15°WGriman Creek — 29.69°S, 147.63°EAdamantina — 19.46°S, 50.11°WEumeralla — 38.85°S, 143.55°EAçu — 5.16°S, 38.10°W

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The named rock units Noasauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Noasauridae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Noasauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

288 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 61 sites for Noasauridae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

34 references

Each of the 67 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 22 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Noasauridae

Credit
Eduard Solà
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Noasauridae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCeratosauria through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte and Powell 1980