Chilesaurus
Name:
Chilesaurus
(Chile lizard).
Phonetic: Chill-e-sore-us.
Named By: F. E. Novas, L. Salgado, M.
Su�rez, F. L. Agnol�n, M. D. Ezcurra, N. R.
Chimento, R. Cruz, M. P. Isasi, A. O. Vargas
& D. Rubilar-Rogers - 2015
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Tetanurae.
Species: C. diegosuarezi
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Up to about 3.2 meters long.
Known locations: Chile - Toqui Formation.
Time period: Tithonian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial remains of at least
five individuals representing various ages from juvenile to adult.
Chilesaurus
is a very exciting find, and not just because it was the first
Jurassic aged dinosaur to be discovered in Chile. Chilesaurus
is a
theropod dinosaur, yet there is no doubt that Chilesaurus
was a plant
eater, and not a carnivore like most other theropods were. Firstly
the teeth of spatulate and project slightly forwards, Perfect for
snipping of fronds of plants. The pubic bone of the hip also points
backwards, something that would allow for a larger gut that would
have been necessary for processing plant matter. Finally the feet of
Chilesaurus were broad with a first toe adapted for
weight bearing,
suggesting that Chilesaurus was not as well suited
to fast and agile
running as its predatory cousins.
There
would have been a time when a plant eating theropod dinosaur would have
been unthinkable, but we can actually see switches from meat eating
to plant eating happening many times. Therizinosaurs
are also
theropods, but ones that adapted to eating plants, while
ornithomimosaurs
may have developed omnivorous diets eating both meat
and plants. The sauropod
dinosaurs are also of the lizard hipped
branch that theropods are, and they too evolved from sauropodomorph
dinosaurs that would have had meat eating ancestors. What Chilesaurus
shows us more than anything else is that given time and opportunity,
evolution will push changes in descendants that were very different
from their ancestors.
Chilesaurus
means ‘Chile lizard’, a simple reference to the country where the
first fossils were found. The species name C. diegosuarezi
is in
recognition of Diego Su�rez, who as a seven year old discovered the
first rib and vertebrae of Chilesaurus back 2004.
Further reading
- First Late Jurassic dinosaur bones from Chile. - Journal of
Vertebrate Paleontology 28. - L. Salgado, R. De La Cruz,
M. Su�rez, Z. Gasparini & M. Fern�ndez - 2008.
- An enigmatic plant-eating theropod from the Late Jurassic period of
Chile. - Nature. - F. E. Novas, L. Salgado, M.
Su�rez,
F. L. Agnol�n, M. D. Ezcurra, N. R. Chimento, R.
Cruz, M. P. Isasi, A. O. Vargas & D.
Rubilar-Rogers - 2015.
- Comment on 'A dinosaur missing-link? Chilesaurus and the early
evolution of ornithischian dinosaurs'. - Biology Letters. 14 (3):
20170581. - Rodrigo Temp M�ller, Fl�vio Augusto Pretto, Leonardo
Kerber, Eduardo Silva-Neves & S�rgio Dias-da-Silva - 2018.
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