The second suborder of Sauruschian
dinosaurs are called the Therapods (which means 'beast foot'). The creatures of
this grouping are largely carnivores, though a few later animals were not. Most
therapods possessed significantly shorter forelimbs leading to most of this
group to be bipedal (walked on two feet). This is the group we mostly think of when we think of
carnivorous dinosaurs, or bird-like dinosaurs. In fact, modern birds are now
actually considered part of the therapod suborder (more on that in bit).
I'd like to be able to break down the
therapods as easily and cleanly as I did with the previous groups, but it
really wouldn't do the group justice. The suborder consists of numerous
infraorders, divisions, and subdivisions. The best I can do is to direct you to
look at more detailed dinosaur classification charts. These charts can better
fit these groups into the Linnaean system (though it gets a lot more complex
than the simple version of the system we have previously discussed).
Instead, let's look at some of the
most iconic groups and subgroups.
The Abelisauroids were once a very
successful group of carnivores. This group included the tiny armed hunters, the
Carnotaurs (who were an enjoyable enemy in my beloved animated classic Disney's Dinosaur (2000)). The Abelisauroids we most prevalent on the southern continents, possibly due to the more successful carnivores of the north, such as T. rex. This
subdivision of the larger Ceratosauria infraorder was named after the
Abelisaurus (the larger head in the above illustration).
This group contains dinosaurs such
Megalosaurus, Torvosaurus, and the Spinosaurid family. The Spinosaurids were
unique piscivorous (fish-eating) dinosaurs. My personal favourite dinosaur
Baryonyx resides within this family, alongside its enormous cousin Spinosaurus.
Scientists are still learning a lot about Spinosaurus (once featured in
Jurassic Park 3), and have recently found that all their best guesses about
Spinosaurus were previously quite wrong. The specimens and research of this
dinosaur make up an interesting story in their own right (which I won't go into
here, but I highly recommend looking into it. Check out part 10 of this series
for more resources and suggestions).
Carnosaurs (apart from being the
antagonist of a fantastically cheesy horror novel and film series), once
contained a wide variety of therapods, but it has since been thinned down to
pretty much only contain Allosauroids. Allosaurus is considered by many to be
the most successful carnivorous dinosaur that ever lived. We certainly find
more of its fossils than any other. It is also very well known to us, here in
North America, because this is where it once roamed over 150 million years ago.
There is a staggering amount of information out there about this one species
alone.
This clade of therapods contains all
the therapods that appear more closely related to modern birds than to
Carnosaurs. It contains everything from the tiny Compsognathids to the giant
Tyrannosauroids. Most distinct among this group are the ornithomimosaurs('bird-mimics', such as the ostrich like Gallimimus) and the Maniraptora (deadly hunters such as Deinonychus and Velociraptor). And at the end of all the
branches of the Coelurosauria is a small class of animals that we all know too
well, Aves (modern birds). That's right, birds are the only remaining group of
dinosaurs on the planet. Want to know more about the connection between birds and dinosaurs? Check out the next post in the series...
Next time: Part 6 - The Bird Connection
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