Tyrannosauroidea
Author
Holtz, TR jr.
text
2004
University of California Press
Editor
Weishampel DB
Editor
Dodson P
Editor
Osmolska H
The Dinosauria
111
136
book chapter
10.5281/zenodo.3374526
2a40cf95-9ffb-4f3c-894b-cf53b8788a0a
3374526
Bagaraatan ostromi
is known only from a partial mandible, a partial pelvis, an incomplete hindlimb, a partial sacrum, and most of the caudal series from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia (Osmólska 1996). It is apomorphic in its two caudal surangular foramina and stout hyposphene-hypantrum articulations in the first 16 caudals. As in some ceratosaurs and birds, the astragalus and calcaneum are fused to each other and to the tibia; furthermore, the distal portion of the fibula is fused to the tibia and tarsus. Osmólska (1996) did not attempt a phylogenetic analysis of this taxon but hypothesized that it was the sister taxon to
Avetheropoda
. Here it is found to be closer to
Tyrannosauridae
, and hence a basal tyrannosauroid, as well as to related taxa based on the following derived features: a prominent and laterally extending horizontal shelf on the lateral surface of the surangular, rostral and ventral to the mandibular condyle; the retroarticular process reduced and broadened; and a ventral flange on the ischial peduncle of the pubis. However, given the fragmentary nature of this taxon and the incomplete nature of what is known of
B. ostromi
,
such a position is not particularly secure and is likely to change with new information.
FIGURE 5.23. Left ilium of
Stokesosaurus clevelandi
.
Scale = 10 cm. (After Foster and Chure 2000.)
The remaining diagnostic characters for Tyrannosauroidea unite a clade composed of
Stokesosaurus
,
Dryptosaurus
,
and the
Eotyrannus
-
Tyrannosauridae
group.