Prehistoric Earth Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Aerosteon

Life restoration of Aerosteon

Aerosteon ("air bone") is a theropod dinosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous of Argentina.

Description[]

Aerosteon was a medium-sized theropod, measuring about 9 meters in length. Its skeleton is incomplete, but the fusion of the bones indicate that this individual was not fully grown.

Some of the dinosaur's recovered bones contain air sacs, similar to the respiratory system of modern-day birds.[1]

Classification and Discovery[]

Aerosteon is part of the family Neovenatoridae, which was a group of allosauroids that survived to the Cretaceous.[2]

It was first described by Paul Sereno and others in 2008 on the online journal PLoS ONE. At the time, however, the International Zoological Code of Nomenclature did not recognize or validate names that were published online without an additional print copy. Thus, Aerosteon did not become a valid name until 2009.[3]

References[]

  1. Sereno, P.C., Martinez,R.N., Wilson, J.A., Varricchio, D.J., Alcober, O.A., and Larsson, H.C.E. (2008). Kemp, Tom. ed. "Evidence for Avian Intrathoracic Air Sacs in a New Predatory Dinosaur from Argentina". PLoS ONE 3 (9): e3303. Bibcode 2008PLoSO...3.3303S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003303. PMC 2553519. PMID 18825273.
  2. Benson R.B.J., Carrano M.T, Brusatte S.L. (2010). "A new clade of archaic large-bodied predatory dinosaurs (Theropoda: Allosauroidea) that survived to the latest Mesozoic". Naturwissenschaften 97 (1): 71–78. Bibcode 2010NW.....97...71B. doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0614-x. PMID 19826771.
  3. PLoS ONE Group (2009). "Steps taken to meet the requirements of the ICZN to make new taxonomic names nomenclaturally available." Comment on Original Article: "Evidence for Avian Intrathoracic Air Sacs in a New Predatory Dinosaur from Argentina." PLoS ONE, 21 May 2009.
Advertisement