Phylogeny of Allosauroidea (Dinosauria: Theropoda): Comparative analysis and resolution

By S. Brusatte, Paul C. Sereno. 2008

102 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Synopsis Allosauroidea, a clade of large‐bodied theropod dinosaurs that ranged from the Middle Jurassic until the Late Cretaceous, has been the subject of extensive phylogenetic study. However, despite the publication of 12 cladistic analyses little phylogenetic consensus has emerged, frustrating attempts to use these dinosaurs to study character evolution, biogeography and the quality of the fossil record. Here we analyse a core subset of allosauroids using cladistic methodology and several comparative methods. After reviewing previous studies and their points of disagreement, we present a new cladistic analysis that integrates data from these studies with new characters. This analysis finds strong support for placing Sinraptor as a basal allosauroid, Neovenator as a basal member of Carcharodontosauridae and Acrocanthosaurus as a more derived member of Carcharodontosauridae, rather than the sister taxon of Allosaurus as sometimes advocated. The current dataset is compared in detail to those of previous studies to determine the degree of overlap and the basis for differing topologies. These comparisons show that scoring differences, character choice and taxonomic sampling all play a major role in generating incongruence. Finally, the recovered most parsimonious topology is used to assess character evolution, stratigraphical congruence and biogeography. This topology shows a strong overall match with the stratigraphical record and is much more congruent with stratigraphy than any alternative topology. The biogeographical history of core allosauroids is found to be congruent with the breakup sequence of Pangaea, but more complete assessment is hampered by sampling biases.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Paleontology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ee70b6cf51faad46bf87292cf99f7fe4c6847c08

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Citations in the corpus

The Osteology of Neovenator salerii (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Wealden Group (Barremian) of the Isle of Wight (2010, background): “As noted above, the results of a phylogenetic analysis of the Allosauroidea are presented elsewhere (Brusatte and Sereno, 2008); however, a cladogram is provided in the present monograph.”
The Osteology of Alioramus, A Gracile and Long-Snouted Tyrannosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia (2012, background): “However, some allosauroids (Brusatte and Sereno, 2008) and megalosauroids (Britt, 1991) also possess a distally expansive lateral malleolus, and thus this character is variable among theropods as well.”
A description of Megalosaurus bucklandii (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Bathonian of the UK and the relationships of Middle Jurassic theropods (2010, background): “bucklandii and all taxa sharing a more recent common ancestor with it than with Allosaurus fragilis or Passer domesticus) (Fig. 20). Previous authors have recovered Megalosauroidea or Spinosauroidea as a clade comprising taxa recovered as megalosaurids or spinosaurids in the present analysis (Sereno”
The distribution of dental features in non-avian theropod dinosaurs: Taxonomic potential, degree of homoplasy, and major evolutionary trends (2019, background): “Besides the isolated tooth MNN GAD15 illustrated and ascribed to a carcharodontosaurid by Brusatte and Sereno (2008), we did not observe split carina in the dentition of any non-tyrannosaurid taxa examined first hand, suggesting that this condition is not common outside Tyrannosauridae.”
The Early Evolution of Archosaurs: Relationships and the Origin of Major Clades (2011, unknown): “KEY REFERENCES: Marsh, 1877; Madsen, 1976; Brusatte and Sereno, 2008.”
The phylogeny of Tetanurae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) (2012, background): “Since its original description, the placement of Neovenator within Allosauroidea has varied, with some authors (Holtz et al. 2004; Brusatte & Sereno 2008; Benson 2010a; Benson et al. 2010) favouring a closer relationship to Carcharodontosauridae than Allosauridae.”