Browsing by Author "Duncan, RJ"

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    First elaphrosaurine theropod dinosaur (Ceratosauria: Noasauridae) from Australia — a cervical vertebra from the early Cretaceous of Victoria
    (Elsevier, 2020-08) Poropat, SF; Pentland, AH; Duncan, RJ; Bevitt, JJ; Vickers-Rich, P; Rich, TH
    Elaphrosaurinae is an enigmatic clade of gracile ceratosaurian theropod dinosaurs known from the Late Jurassic of Africa (Elaphrosaurus bambergi) and Asia (e.g., Limusaurus inextricabilis), and the early Late Cretaceous of Argentina (Huinculsaurus montesi). Elaphrosaurinae is often placed within Noasauridae as the sister taxon to Noasaurinae, a clade of small-bodied theropods that lived in South America, Africa, Madagascar and India throughout much of the Cretaceous. Herein, we report the first evidence of Elaphrosaurinae from Australia: a nearly complete middle cervical vertebra from the upper Lower Cretaceous (lower Albian) Eumeralla Formation of Cape Otway, Victoria, Australia. The fact that this site would have been situated at ~76°S towards the end of the Early Cretaceous (~110–107 Ma) implies that elaphrosaurines were capable of tolerating near-polar palaeoenvironments, whereas its age indicates that elaphrosaurines persisted in Australia until at least the late Early Cretaceous. The new Australian elaphrosaurine, in tandem with the recently described Huinculsaurus montesi from the Cenomanian–Turonian of Argentina, implies that the spatiotemporal distribution of Elaphrosaurinae has heretofore been greatly underestimated. Historic confusion of elaphrosaurines with coelurosaurs, especially ornithomimosaurs, coupled with our generally poor understanding of noasaurid evolution, might explain the apparent dearth of fossils of this theropod clade worldwide. © 2020 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V.
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    The osteology of Ferrodraco lentoni, an anhanguerid pterosaur from the mid-Cretaceous of Australia
    (Taylor & Francis, 2022-03-28) Pentland, AH; Poropat, SF; White, MA; Rigby, SL; Bevitt, JJ; Duncan, RJ; Sloan, T; Elliott, RA; Elliott, HA; Elliott, JA; Elliott, DA
    Ferrodraco lentoni, an anhanguerid from the Upper Cretaceous Winton Formation of northeast Australia, is the most complete Australian pterosaur described to date, represented by a partial cranium, incomplete cervical series and wing elements. Herein we present a comprehensive osteological description of Ferrodraco, as well as an emended diagnosis for this taxon. In addition, we compare Ferrodraco with other isolated pterosaur remains from Australian Cretaceous deposits. Subtle, yet salient, differences indicate that at least three of these specimens, all derived from the upper Albian Toolebuc Formation, are distinct from Ferrodraco. However, we are uncertain whether these specimens are attributable to Mythunga camara, Aussiedraco molnari, Thapunngaka shawi, or an as yet un-named taxon. Detailed description of the postcranial material of Ferrodraco also provides an opportunity to reassess its phylogenetic position. In one analysis, Ferrodraco and Mythunga are resolved as sister taxa within Tropeognathinae, whereas in another, Ferrodraco, Mythunga, and Tropeognathus form a polytomy within Coloborhynchinae. Either way, these slight differences notwithstanding, a close relationship between Ferrodraco and Mythunga is evident, supporting the interpretation that they form a clade. By contrast, Aussiedraco molnari is resolved as a member of Targaryendraconia, a clade with a cosmopolitan distribution. The presence of several anhanguerian taxa or lineages in the late Early and early Late Cretaceous of northeast Australia is suggestive of even greater diversity in the Australian pterosaur fauna. © 2022. A. H. Pentland, S. F. Poropat, M. A. White, S. L. Rigby, J. J.Brevitt, R. J. Duncan, T. Sloan, R. A. Elliott, H. A. Elliott, J. A.Elliott, and D. A. Elliott. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Crea-tive Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, pro-vided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed,or built upon in any way