Limusaurus – an herbivorous ceratosaur?

 

 

This is a bit different! I hadn't picked up on this in the previous piece I posted. I'd just assumed it was another coelurosaur.

 

As Archosaur Musings notes, while not unsurprising that a number of theropods became herbivores, it is surprising "...that Limusaurus is a ceratosaur and thus part of a clade which would normally not be associated with this kind of lifestyle at all – at least the others are consistent. Ceratosaurs such as the eponymous Ceratosaurus, bizarre Carnotaurus and Abelisaurus while obviously having their differences do have one thing in common, namely being tanking great animal with shredding carnivorous teeth. Because, well, they killed and ate their dinner and it had a tendency towards a) being alive, and thus unlike plants, b) could run away."

 

Also interesting that this critter apparently dates from the middle Jurassic and thus, given that it already shows a number of seeming adaptations to herbivory, must have had a number of herbivorous and omnivorous antecedents. This pushes herbivory much further back in time for Theropoda, and I suppose phylogenetically as well.

 

That "...a basal member of a basal clade of theropods adopted herbivory far earlier than we thought."

 

Much more at the Archosaur Musings link.

 

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Beaked, Bird-like Dinosaur Tells Story of Finger Evolution

This image shows a reconstruction of Limusaurus

 

Introducing Limusaurus inextricabilis ("mire lizard who could not escape").

 

June 17, 2009

Scientists have discovered a unique beaked, plant-eating dinosaur in China. The finding, they say, demonstrates that theropod, or bird-footed, dinosaurs were more ecologically diverse in the Jurassic period than previously thought, and offers important evidence about how the three-fingered hand of birds evolved from the hand of dinosaurs.

 

The discovery is reported in a paper published in this week's edition of the journal Nature.

 

"This work on dinosaurs provides a whole new perspective on the evolution of bird manual digits," said H. Richard Lane, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research.

 

Full article here.

 

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