New Theropod Discoverd

[Takama]

And its a weird one

http://www.livescience.com/50631-t-rex-cousin-ate-plants.html

[Balaur]

Wow! That's pretty weird. My only problem with the article is the title. When I read it, I thought it was some sort of bizarre herbivorous tyrannosaur. Really, it's not even closely related to tyrannosaurs from what I skimmed. Saying that anything that is a theropod is a T. rex relative is like saying anything that's an ornithischian is a Ceratopsian relative. Just really irritates me!

_{Post edited for language.}

[stargatedalek]

Wow! That's pretty weird. My only problem with the article is the title. When I read it, I thought it was some sort of bizarre herbivorous tyrannosaur. Really, it's not even closely related to tyrannosaurs from what I skimmed. Saying that anything that is a theropod is a T. rex relative is like saying anything that's an ornithischian is a Ceratopsian relative. Just really irritates me!

PETA has done the same thing in their campaigns (man I hate PETA). Its something that's done fairly frequently since they want to use tyrannosaurus as click-bait.

[Halichoeres]

I'm picturing a writer encountering the word "theropod" in an email from a scientist, looking it up on Wikipedia, and just seizing on the first two recognizable names--Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor.

[Kayakasaurus]

I'm picturing a writer encountering the word "theropod" in an email from a scientist, looking it up on Wikipedia, and just seizing on the first two recognizable names--Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor.

That's probably exactly what happened LOL

[suspsy]

Can't wait for the toy!

[Patrx]

How disappointing it is to me that such a fascinating animal with so many interesting characteristics fell to the tiresome and dull trend of animals being named after their locality.

[Takama]

Im just wondering if this is really a new type of Theropod. New Family called the Chilesaurs?

I mean its skeleton looks like nothing I ever seen before

[stargatedalek]

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14307.html
Theropod dinosaurs were the dominant predators in most Mesozoic era terrestrial ecosystems1. Early theropod evolution is currently interpreted as the diversification of various carnivorous and cursorial taxa, whereas the acquisition of herbivorism, together with the secondary loss of cursorial adaptations, occurred much later among advanced coelurosaurian theropods1, 2. A new, bizarre herbivorous basal tetanuran from the Upper Jurassic of Chile challenges this conception. The new dinosaur was discovered at Aysén, a fossil locality in the Upper Jurassic Toqui Formation of southern Chile (General Carrera Lake)3, 4. The site yielded abundant and exquisitely preserved three-dimensional skeletons of small archosaurs. Several articulated individuals of Chilesaurus at different ontogenetic stages have been collected, as well as less abundant basal crocodyliforms, and fragmentary remains of sauropod dinosaurs (diplodocids and titanosaurians).

[Derek.McManus]

Interesting...look forward to finding out more!

[DinoLord]

I wonder if there's any possible relation to Limusaurus; seems like both were around at roughly the same time (albeit across the world from each other). Very exciting to think that there could be a whole new family of theropods just starting to be discovered.

[Balaur]

Also, just noticed, all four toes are touching the ground. This is a really cool theropod though. Small, shoet head, long neck, two fingered hands, relatively small arms, the hallux long enough to come in contact with the ground, an ornithischian like hip; I'm curious to see were it goes. As DinoLord said, it would be awesome to find a new family of theropods. However, I believe the most recent study on bird evolution, published by Darren Naish and Andrea Cau, had Limusaurus be a (basal?) noasaur.

[sauroid]

who do you think would make the best figure representation of this new discovery? CollectA or Wild Safari?

[Halichoeres]

who do you think would make the best figure representation of this new discovery? CollectA or Wild Safari?

Jurassic Hunters ha ha ha

[Megalosaurus]

Pretty one this Chilesaurus.
Nice to see that Therizinosaurs are not alone anymore.

[stargatedalek]

Mustn't forget oviraptorosaurs either

[Balaur]

Oh, and some Ornithomimosaurs. Another thing that annoys me is that we're acting like herbivorous theropods are totally new. As mentioned, we have Ornithomimosaurs and Therizinosaurs, and Oviraptorosaurs, but we do know that some Troodontid's would have been primarily herbivorous, some Microraptor's may have been omnivorous, and then we have Limusaurus and Elaphrosaurus.
Also, this raises the question for me, if there are herbivorous theropods, why not carnivorous ornithischians. About the closest thing we have to that are Heterodontosaurid's, but even then they still ate roots and plants and stuff.

[Brontozaurus]

Oh, and some Ornithomimosaurs. Another thing that annoys me is that we're acting like herbivorous theropods are totally new. As mentioned, we have Ornithomimosaurs and Therizinosaurs, and Oviraptorosaurs, but we do know that some Troodontid's would have been primarily herbivorous, some Microraptor's may have been omnivorous, and then we have Limusaurus and Elaphrosaurus.
Also, this raises the question for me, if there are herbivorous theropods, why not carnivorous ornithischians. About the closest thing we have to that are Heterodontosaurid's, but even then they still ate roots and plants and stuff.

As far as carnivorous ornithiscians go, ceratopsians and the Australian ornithopod Muttaburrasaurus have been proposed to be at least slightly omnivorous as they have slicing teeth rather than grinding teeth like many other ornithiscians.

[CreateRandom]

Interesting. It looks like some sort of a prosauropod/small ornithopod rather than what it is. I think it isn't that closely related to Limusaurus because it is some sort of an indeterminate tetanuran while Limusaurus is a ceratosaur.

From what i've read, the media focused more on it being weird though (By labelling it the platypus of dinosaurs even though there are other weird dinosaurs) rather than it being herbivorous. Also, i agree with Balaur on that. While it is technically related to T.rex, it's a distant relation that it felt like the news used it as an attention grabber.

Wonder if CollectA or Safari make this first