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      New Australovenator Hind Limb Elements Pertaining to the Holotype Reveal the Most Complete Neovenatorid Leg

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          Abstract

          We report new skeletal elements pertaining to the same individual which represents the holotype of Australovenator wintonensis, from the ‘Matilda Site’ in the Winton Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of western Queensland. The discovery of these new elements means that the hind limb of Australovenator is now the most completely understood hind limb among Neovenatoridae. The new hind limb elements include: the left fibula; left metatarsal IV; left pedal phalanges I-2, II-1, III-4, IV-2, IV-3; and right pedal phalanges, II-2 and III-1. The detailed descriptions are supported with three dimensional figures. These coupled with the completeness of the hind limb will increase the utility of Australovenator in comparisons with less complete neovenatorid genera. These specimens and the previously described hind limb elements of Australovenator are compared with other theropods classified as neovenatorids (including Neovenator, Chilantaisaurus, Fukuiraptor, Orkoraptor and Megaraptor). Hind limb length proportion comparisons indicate that the smaller neovenatorids Australovenator and Fukuiraptor possess more elongate and gracile hind limb elements than the larger Neovenator and Chilantaisaurus. Greater stride lengths to body size exist in both Fukuiraptor and Australovenator with the femur discovered to be proportionally shorter the rest of the hind limb length. Additionally Australovenator is identified as possessing the most elongate metatarsus. The metatarsus morphology varies with body size. The larger neoventorids possess a metatarsus with greater width but shorter length compared to smaller forms.

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          A new clade of archaic large-bodied predatory dinosaurs (Theropoda: Allosauroidea) that survived to the latest Mesozoic.

          Non-avian theropod dinosaurs attained large body sizes, monopolising terrestrial apex predator niches in the Jurassic-Cretaceous. From the Middle Jurassic onwards, Allosauroidea and Megalosauroidea comprised almost all large-bodied predators for 85 million years. Despite their enormous success, however, they are usually considered absent from terminal Cretaceous ecosystems, replaced by tyrannosaurids and abelisaurids. We demonstrate that the problematic allosauroids Aerosteon, Australovenator, Fukuiraptor and Neovenator form a previously unrecognised but ecologically diverse and globally distributed clade (Neovenatoridae, new clade) with the hitherto enigmatic theropods Chilantaisaurus, Megaraptor and the Maastrichtian Orkoraptor. This refutes the notion that allosauroid extinction pre-dated the end of the Mesozoic. Neovenatoridae includes a derived group (Megaraptora, new clade) that developed long, raptorial forelimbs, cursorial hind limbs, appendicular pneumaticity and small size, features acquired convergently in bird-line theropods. Neovenatorids thus occupied a 14-fold adult size range from 175 kg (Fukuiraptor) to approximately 2,500 kg (Chilantaisaurus). Recognition of this major allosauroid radiation has implications for Gondwanan paleobiogeography: The distribution of early Cretaceous allosauroids does not strongly support the vicariant hypothesis of southern dinosaur evolution or any particular continental breakup sequence or dispersal scenario. Instead, clades were nearly cosmopolitan in their early history, and later distributions are explained by sampling failure or local extinction.
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            New Forearm Elements Discovered of Holotype Specimen Australovenator wintonensis from Winton, Queensland, Australia

            New skeletal elements are reported of the holotype specimen Australovenator wintonensis, from the type locality, near Winton, central western Queensland. New elements include left and right humeri, right radius, right radiale, right distal carpal 1, near complete right metacarpal I, left manual phalanx II-1, left manual phalanx II-2, near complete left manual phalanx II-3 and a left manual phalanx III-3. These new elements combined with those previously described are compared against other neovenatorids.
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              Author and article information

              Contributors
              Role: Editor
              Journal
              PLoS One
              PLoS ONE
              plos
              plosone
              PLoS ONE
              Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
              1932-6203
              2013
              24 July 2013
              : 8
              : 7
              : e68649
              Affiliations
              [1 ]School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia
              [2 ]Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, Winton, Queensland, Australia
              [3 ]Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
              [4 ]Ancient environments, Queensland Museum, Hendra, Queensland, Australia
              [5 ]Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
              [6 ]Monash e-Research Centre, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
              [7 ]Life Sciences Computation Centre, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
              [8 ]Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen, Uppsala, Sweden
              [9 ]Queensland Xray, Mackay, Queensland, Australia
              University of Pennsylvania, United States of America
              Author notes

              Competing Interests: SJW is an employee of Queensland X-Ray. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

              Conceived and designed the experiments: MAW DGB SJW TRT SAH. Performed the experiments: MAW DGB SJW TRT SAH AGC. Analyzed the data: MAW RBJB DGB SJW TRT AGC SAH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MAW DGB SJW TRT DAE. Wrote the paper: MAW RBJB TRT SAH AGC DGB SFP SJW TS GHKS DAE.

              Article
              PONE-D-13-12614
              10.1371/journal.pone.0068649
              3722220
              23894328
              88d49f80-e973-4691-953f-e67e8f905520
              Copyright @ 2013

              This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

              History
              : 24 March 2013
              : 30 May 2013
              Page count
              Pages: 25
              Funding
              The authors acknowledge University of Newcastle for providing computer software for specimen analysis. They acknowledge funding to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum and Queensland Museum from the Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP100100339). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
              Categories
              Research Article
              Biology
              Anatomy and Physiology
              Comparative Anatomy
              Evolutionary Biology
              Paleontology
              Paleobiology
              Vertebrate Paleontology
              Paleontology
              Vertebrate Paleontology
              Earth Sciences
              Paleontology
              Vertebrate Paleontology
              Medicine
              Radiology
              Diagnostic Radiology
              Computed Tomography

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