Averostra

Averostrans
Temporal range:
Early JurassicPresent,
Skeleton of a juvenile Ceratosaurus, Dinosaur Discovery Museum
Skeleton of Allosaurus fragilis
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Clade: Neotheropoda
Clade: Averostra
Paul, 2002
Subgroups
Averostrans of
uncertain affinity

Averostra, or "bird snouts", is a clade that includes most theropod dinosaurs, namely Ceratosauria and Tetanurae, and represent the only group of post-Early Jurassic theropods. Both survived into the Cretaceous period. When the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event occurred, ceratosaurians, megaraptorans an incertae sedis group within Tetanurae, and two groups of tetanurans within the clade Coelurosauria, the Tyrannosauroidea and Maniraptoriformes, were still extant. Only one subgroup of Maniraptoriformes, Aves, survived the extinction event and persisted to the present day.

One important diagnostic feature of Averostra is the absence of the fifth metacarpal. Other saurischians retained this bone, albeit in a significantly reduced form.

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