Cranial osteology of the theropod dinosaur Incisivosaurus gauthieri (Theropoda, Oviraptorosauria)

Title Variants

Alternative: Incisivosaurus gauthieri osteology

Related Titles

Series: American Museum novitates, no. 3651

By

Balanoff, Amy M.
Xu, Xing, 1969-
Kobayashi, Yoshimura
Matsufune, Yusuke.
Norell, Mark A.

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

New York, NY, American Museum of Natural History, c2009

Notes

Caption title.

"June 25, 2009."

Specimen collected from the lower part of the Yixian Formation.

We provide a description of the holotype skull of the unusual oviraptorosaur Incisivosaurus gauthieri. Previous phylogenetic analyses have placed this taxon firmly within Oviraptorosauria near the base of the clade; however, until now only a cursory description of this important specimen was available. The presence of many primitive characteristics (e.g., maxillary and dentary teeth as well as an extended palate and rostrum) indicates that the observed similarities between avians and derived oviraptorids are convergences rather than shared derived characters. In addition, we clarify previous descriptions of several ambiguous anatomical features, most notably of the palate. We also employ computed tomographic (CT) analysis, which allows for a more complete description of the braincase and the reconstruction of an endocranial endocast. CT imagery reveals features that were before unobtainable, such as the presence of a replacement tooth behind the large rodentiform incisor in the premaxilla. This arrangement indicates that although the incisiform teeth of I. gauthieri are morphologically distinct they are replaced in typical archosaurian fashion.

Subjects

Anatomy , Beipiao Shi Region , China , Cretaceous , Dinosaurs , Incisivosaurus gauthieri , Liaoning Sheng , Oviraptorosauria , Paleontology , Phylogeny , Reptiles, Fossil , Skull

Call Number

QL1 .A436 no.3651 2009

Language

English

Identifiers

OCLC: 419408335