Published May 31, 2003 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Unenlagia comahuensis Novas and Puerta 1997

Authors/Creators

Description

Unenlagia comahuensis Novas and Puerta, 1997

Age. Turonian-Coniacian.

Occurrence. Rio Neuquén Formation, Neuquén, Argentina.

Diagnosis. Deep lateral pits at the bases of the posterior dorsal and sacral neural spines; scapular blade strongly twisted against the glenoid region; postacetabular iliac blade distinctly concave dorsoposteriorly.

Remarks. Despite the fragmentary nature of the holotype specimen, Unenlagia is an important taxon supposedly close to the ancestry of birds (Novas and Puerta 1997). According to a phylogenetic analysis in Forster et al. (1998), it represents a member of basal birds that also includes Rahonavis and Archaeopteryx. However, the forearm proportions of Unenlagia, as far as can be judged from the preserved humerus, do not agree with a position within volant birds and Norell and Makovicky (1999) pointed out several characters shared with dromaeosaurids. Therefore, the species is treated as a separate OTU here.

Notes

Published as part of Rauhut, Oliver W. M., 2003, The interrelationships and evolution of basal theropod dinosaurs, pp. 1-213 in Special papers in palaeontology 69 on pages 32-33, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3382576

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Scientific name authorship
Novas and Puerta
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Order
Dinosauria
Family
Dromaeosauridae
Genus
Unenlagia
Species
comahuensis
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Unenlagia comahuensis and, 1997 sec. Rauhut, 2003

References

  • FORSTER, c. a., sampson, s. D " chiappe, L. M. and krause, D. w. 1998. The theropod ancestry of birds: new evidence from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Science, 279, 1915 - 1919.
  • ------------- 1999. Important features of the dromaeosaur skeleton II: information from newly collected specimens of Velociraptor mongoliensis. American Museum Novitates, 3282, 1 - 45.