thedinorocker

After the recent article of Cau (2021) I can't stop thinking about Oviraptorids' phylogeny... Small bodied and crestless (or almost crestless) taxa usually form a soubgroup within Heyuanninae. In recent years our knowledge about dinosaurs ontogeny has grown and we know dinosaurs of various families does not show characteristic traits until maturity. For example flat domed Pachycephalosaur are now considered juvenile (Horner 2009), LOTS of small bodied crestless Hadrosaurs are now regarded junior synonym of bigger species (i.e. Tetragonsaurus erectofrons, Procheneosaurus praeceps, Corythosaurus frontalis etc.) and Ceratopsid shows an enlarged subadult phase in wich cranial ornamentations are not fully developed (Samson et al. 1997). My best guess is the cluster of small crestless Oviraptorid is an artifact due to the immature status of the specimens and my opinion taxa like Banji or Khaan represents juvenile specimen of other contemporary and sympatric species. Considering the high

Ibrahim et al.2020 pubblished new material of the neotype specimen of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus FSAC-KK 11888. The fossils form a relatively complete caudal series and definitely shut down 2 great debate about this taxon: 1) The specimen is natural and not a chimeric assemblament of every sort. 2) Spinosaurus is definitely a (semi?) acquatic animal. Image modified from Ibrahim et al2020.