Ceratosauria

iCeratosaurs Fossil range: Jurassic-Cretaceous
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Order: Saurischia Suborder: Theropoda Infraorder: Ceratosauria Marsh, 1884
Families
Elaphrosauridae Ceratosauridae Noasauridae Abelisauridae

An outdated reconstruction of Ceratosaurus as an erect biped.

Ceratosaurs are a group of theropod dinosaurs defined as all theropods sharing a more recent common ancestry with Ceratosaurus than with birds. There is presently no universally agreed upon listing of species or diagnostic characters of Ceratosauria. According to one theory, Ceratosauria includes the Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous theropods Ceratosaurus, Elaphrosaurus, and Abelisaurus, found primarily (though not exclusively) in the southern hemisphere. Traditionally, Ceratosauria included the above dinosaurs plus the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic Coelophysoidea (Coelophysis, Dilophosaurus, etc.), implying a much earlier divergence of ceratosaurs from other theropods. However, most recent studies have shown that coelophysoids do not form a clade with other ceratosaurs, and should be excluded from this group.

Classification

• Suborder Theropoda
  • INFRAORDER CERATOSAURIA
    • ?Lukousaurus
    • Elaphrosaurus
    • Chuandongocoelurus
    • Neoceratosauria
      • Family Ceratosauridae
        • Genyodectes
        • Ceratosaurus
      • Superfamily Abelisauroidea
        • Spinostropheus
        • Abelisauria
          • Family Noasauridae
          • Family Abelisauridae

External links

• " Ceratosauria ". DinoData.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Ceratosauria. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Paleontology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.