#ypupiara

[si-nequal-is]

Ypupiara lopai in brazilian Miku coloration. As it is brazilian dinosaur, technically it is brazilian Miku too.

[fenestrosaur]

Ypupiara lopai surprises an Uberabasuchus terrificus (perhaps a mother defending her nest?) (2021)

[phaethonzx]

Ypupiara, a brazillian dromaeosaur from the Late Cretaceous

[si-nequal-is]

Ypupiara on its burned homeland.

[shinreddear]

A symbolic reconstruction of the newly described Unenlagiine from Brazil.Its remains were destroyed from the Museo of Sao Polo two years ago, in part because of gross neglect by the Brazilian Government under Bolsonaro's ruthless rule. Art by me, Guillaume Babey

[new-dinosaurs]

Ypupiara lopai Brum et al., 2021 (new genus and species)

(Partial maxilla [bone in the upper jaw] of Ypupiara lopai, from Brum et al., 2021)

Meaning of name: Ypupiara = one who lives in the water [referencing a Tupian myth and the dinosaur’s possibly piscivorous diet]; lopai = for Alberto Lopa [discoverer of the original fossil]

Age: Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)

Where found: Marília Formation, Minas Gerais, Brazil

How much is known: Fragments of the upper and lower jaws.

Notes: Ypupiara was an unenlagiine, a group of paravian theropods typically considered members of the Dromaeosauridae. Unenlagiines had long snouts and numerous unserrated teeth, which has led to the suggestion that they were primarily piscivorous (fish-eating). In the giant Austroraptor (one of the largest known dromaeosaurids), the teeth were also cone-shaped, another characteristic commonly found in fish-eating reptiles. The teeth of Ypupiara were not as cone-shaped as those of Austroraptor, but they were nonetheless less blade-like than in most other carnivorous theropods, which may suggest that it still fed substantially on fishes.

Sadly, the only known fossils of Ypupiara were lost in a large fire that destroyed the main building of the National Museum of Brazil in 2018.

Reference: Brum, A.S., R.V. Pêgas, K.L.N. Bandeira, L.G. Souza, D.A. Campos, and A.W.A. Kellner. 2021. A new unenlagiine (Theropoda, Dromaeosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Brazil. Papers in Palaeontology advance online publication. doi: 10.1002/spp2.1375