MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF BRAZILIAN MEGARAPTORS VERTEBRAE

• Grant number: 24/22016-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Paleozoology
• Principal Investigator: Max Cardoso Langer
• Grantee: Gabriel Fernandes Pereira
• 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

Among Dinosauria, Theropoda congregates the biggest land predators that ever livedsuch as the North American Tyrannosaurus rex, the Argentine Giganotosaurus caroliniiand the Brazilian Pycnonemosaurus nevesi. The oldest species of Theropoda datesback to the Neotriassic, approximately 230 million years ago and there's still livingrepresentatives of this clade today, birds. Megaraptora, specifically, is an enigmaticgroup of Theropoda with many uncertainties regarding it's phylogenetic positioning, withthere being currently two main proposals: one placing them in Allosauroidea and theother in Coelurosauria. Megaraptorans are 6 to 10 meters long predators from theCretaceous period, characterized by their slender builds, elongated skulls, small andcurved teeth, extensive pneumatization compared to other Theropods and robustforelimbs, which have one to two well-developed raptorial claws. In the present project,Brazilian fossils of possible megaraptorans from the Bauru Group and SantanaFormation will be analyzed morphologically, in order to verify whether thepneumatization of caudal vertebrae phylogenetically informative character for the group,discuss how the development of air sacs occurred in extinct lineages of Theropoda andconfirm the occurrence of this group in Brazilian territory.