Spec-Dinovember Day 26: Mud Sifter, a theropod specialized for feeding on small invertebrates
Returning to Elan Bank and the Kerguelen Plateau from day 19, the limited number of founding taxa present during the bank's breakaway has allowed many niches to be filled by unorthodox clades. Noasaurs are already unorthodox creatures without an island environment, so the ones marooned here have become even more odd. Numeniasaurus limulus is a elaphrosaurine that has become specialized in feeding on the worms, snails, and crustaceans that burrow into the muddy coastal volcanic sands. They can be found in large flocks feeding on the flats during low tide, retreating to sheltered cliffsides and uplands of tussock grasses during high tide.
I swear when I started this one I wasn't looking at ibises! I was going with the idea of Limusaurus as a godwit, but the upturned snout reminded me of Alec Baldwin's face stretch thing from Beetlejuice, so then I looked at curlews, and when I finished drawing the beak I stepped back and realized that's just an ibis. Ah well, chalk that one up to convergent evolution and call it a day! So then I leaned into that and gave it a bald head and neck like the Australian white ibis, and a little neck ruff. I wanted to make the ruff into the hood turkey vultures have, as I imagine these critters would have need of keeping warm where I've placed them. They'd probably just have fuzzy necks and heads instead, but maybe they need to go bald for picking into beached carcasses or something, I dunno
The rare noasaurids were a family of theropod dinosaurs belonging to the group Ceratosauria, and were related to the short-armed abelisaurids. One noasaur, Masiakasaurus, brought the family into the limelight recently with its appearance on Prehistoric Planet. But in Cretaceous Brazil, a different noasaur left its strange, monodactyl footprints across the sand. Vespersaurus paranaensis had two “killing claws”, on each foot, but not like a Velociraptor, or a Balaur, or even like modern Accipitriformes. Instead, it walked on its middle toe, while its 2nd toe and outer toe were raised off the ground. This may have been an adaptation to moving swiftly across the hot sand of the Botucatu Formation, a vast Cretaceous desert. Such an adaption has not been found in any other archosaur. Vespersaurus probably didn’t actually use these claws for hunting, and was likely a generalist, chasing down small, fast animals, opportunistically scavenging the kills of other predators, or hunting weak and injured animals. It may have instead used its claws in powerful defensive kicks, similar to modern cassowaries.
Other named species have yet to be found in the Botucatu Formation. Aside from Vespersaurus, other fossils include indeterminate coelurosaurs, ornithopods, lizards, tritylodontids, and mammals.
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Berthasaura is just *barely* losing @a-dinosaur-a-day‘s DMM poll and if the only remaining Noasaur loses to a friggin Spinosaur I might actually riot
A vote for Berthasaura is a vote for all Noasaurs, arguably the weirdest collection of non-avian theropods to ever exist. A vote for Berthasaura is, by extension, a vote for:
- Masiakasaurus “why are your teeth like that“ knopfleri of Prehistoric Planet fame, a genuíne Madagascan weirdo
- Vespersaurus “only dinosaur that walks on one toe” paranaensis (yes that includes all birds), tragic second place of the previous round
- Limusaurus “are you sure that’s even a theropod” inextricabilis, which started out like normal little baby theropods before losing their teeth and becoming quasi-ornithomimid beaked herbivores, and its fellow Elaphrosaurines
- Noasaurids are also the closest relatives of Abelisaurs, which should be worth extra brownie points
And Berthasaura itself was no slouch either! In addition to being arguably The Most Ornithopod of any theropod (vote for wacky convergent evolution!), it evolved its toothlessness independently of the Elaphrosaurines, and was toothless its entire life! Friggin Noasaurs don’t even do toothlesness the same way twice apparently. Berthasaura also holds the distinction of being the second ever toothless non-ceolosaurian theropod to be described, and it had a nearly complete skeleton! Berthasaura was an ornithomimid before ornithomimids became cool (or even existed), an early-cretaceous throwback to Shuvosaurids, the first of a long line of weirdo theropods. Peak dinosaur, 9/10.
Meanwhile Ceratosuchops is what, a Baryonychine with a horn on its head? Boo, unoriginal, 4/10. The horn ain’t even that big. It’s only known from some fragments of a skull (again: compare to Berthasaura’s remarkably complete skeleton) and in all honesty I’m just tired of Spinosaurs at this point. I couldn’t even keep track of whatever Spinosaurus drama was happening back when I was deep in my early Covid paleo hyperfixation and I'm kinda scared to check in on it. Apologies to Darren Naish, but I’ve had a petty grudge against spotlight-stealing Spinosaurs since like the third post-2014 Spinosaurus paper and it sure as hell-herons ain’t going away now. Sure, Ceratosuchops was a heron-analogue with a cool name, but it’s not even a proper heron mimic. If you want some real convergent evolution, vote for Berthasaura.
Am I deliberately skimping on Baryonychine facts due to a petty grudge against the most famous member of the family? Yes definitely absolutely. They get enough attention as is. And what do they have that Noasaurs don’t? Weird teeth and an aquatic diet? See Masiakasaurus. Big fore-claws? See Noasaurus. Large size? Overrated, and Deltadromeus might be a Noasaur so they even have that covered. Sail-backs and a semiaquatic lifestyle? That’s Spinosaurus bias talking, vote for Bajadasaurus or Annakacygna instead. Spinosaurs may be fan-favorite weirdo dinosaurs, but I think that Noasaurs were objectively weirder and deserve to advance in the polls. Vote Berthasaura for a weirder, wackier theropod (and a way to unload that pent-up anti-Spinosaurus grudge, if you like)
Berthasaura leopoldinae
Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs
Name meaning: Bertha and Leopoldina’s reptile (in hon
I’m bored of seeing samey dinosauroids all over the place. I decided to do something dumb and pick the worst possible candidates (in my opinion) for an intelligent small theropod, and tried to make it work.
Time for crab.
I present these horrible things. Noasaurs, descended from Madagascan lineages, that have evolved unusually muscular faces, otherwise unseen in theropods almost entirely. Each of their iron-reinforced teeth is in a ball and socket joint, with mobility, sorta like a musk deer, effectively turning the whole goofy ass head into a big hand with rigid fingers.
The teeth originally became mobile, and probably ferrous like a beaver’s, to aid in manipulating and prying open shellfish without damaging the delicate meat inside.
