MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN THE MAXILLARY AND DENTARY BONES OF THEROPODA AND ITS PHYLOGENETIC AND FUNCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS

• Grant number: 23/06692-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): July 01, 2023
• Effective date (End): June 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Paleozoology
• Principal Investigator: Max Cardoso Langer
• Grantee: Felipe Ferreira Pierossi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/07997-4 - Dinosaur diversity and associated faunas in the Cretaceous of South America, AP.TEM

Abstract

Theropoda is, arguably, the best-known clade of dinosaurs, capturing the imagination ofscientists and laymen since the discovery of its first fossils. Also, they are the only dinosaurgroup with extant representatives, the birds. Theropods appeared in the Late Triassic, about230 million years ago, and rose significantly across the Triassic-Jurassic transition, whatallowed, millions of years later, the emergence of the largest terrestrial predators of Earth'shistory, like the famous Tyrannosaurus rex and the Argentinian Giganotosaurus carolinii. Inaddition, some theropod groups evolved towards omnivory and even herbivory, as is the caseof Therizinosauria. The large number of niches occupied by these animals led to aconsiderable morphological diversification, particularly related to the skull anatomy. Thisproject seeks to analyze such differences, based on the maxillary and dentary bones, in aquantitative way, with the use of geometric morphometrics, comparing the results with boththeir function and most accepted theropod phylogenies. The morphological data will beobtained from digital photographs, and geometric morphometrics was chosen because itrepresents a simple, but precise way to analyze study objects, by marking morphologicalpoints (landmarks) on a 2D image. This allows this study to be more comprehensive, sincefossils from all parts the world can be used, based on good quality images available inscientific publications.