Talk:Megaraptor

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Megaraptor, spinosaurid or noasaurid?

I personally have seen a lot of information showing that Megaraptor might actually be a noasaurid abelisaur. For example, Noasaurus had a similar claw on the hand. But, somewhere, I saw someone say that Megaraptor was the last of the spinosaurs. What is going on? Metalraptor (talk) 14:22, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nobody knows what it is, but most things I've seen suggest a tetanuran. That would rule out noasaurs, and leave it either as a spinosauroid or allosauroid. Dinoguy2 (talk) 23:58, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think Megaraptor is more likely a Spinosaurid, even without sail. Shadowrend45, 19:04, November 1 2012 (UTC)

More recent studies have shown that it was actually a neovenatorid, a relative or descendant of the carcharodontosaurs. MMartyniuk (talk) 20:17, 1 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Giant Noasaur

Deltadromeus is gigantic and the biggest of the noasaurs, it is 9 meters long. Megaraptor is more or less the same size (8 - 9 meters), as you know, 90% of noasaurs and abelisaurs were from South America. So, if abelisaurs had puny arms, and noasaurs had long, grasping arms, then Megaraptor might be a big noasaur.

Part 2:

The Megaraptor-related dinosaur found in Australia has not yet been described, but in my opinion it is probably a new dwarf species of Megaraptor, which if Megaraptor was a noasaur, the dwarf Megaraptor would be the first abelisauroid found in Australia, and one of the strange dinosaurs which are found in Australia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.251.58.222 (talk) 09:15, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Seems like you missed this: Neovenatoridae FunkMonk (talk) 09:25, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Dates

The article states that Megaraptor was described in 1998, but yet I have seen it identified by its proper name on a 1997 episode of Paleoworld. How is this possible? 70.80.215.121 (talk) 20:31, 14 May 2011 (UTC)Adam70.80.215.121 (talk) 20:31, 14 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Occasionally, the unpublished name for an animal gets into the media before it is actually scientifically published. This is one way that nomina nuda, or "naked names", are introduced. Usually this happens a few days in advance of a publication, but sometimes there are longer gaps (such as if someone in the production assumed the name would be already published, but then the manuscript required more time). I think the same thing happened for Gastonia in Paleoworld, although to be fair I think its name was floating around for a few years before it was officially published. J. Spencer (talk) 03:32, 15 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The name did indeed appear as a nomen nudum in at least 1997 according to this: [1] The animal was first announced but not described as early as 1996 and presumably they thought of a name pretty quickly after that. MMartyniuk (talk) 13:22, 16 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Spinosauroids

In the article it says spinosauroids, when meglosauroids is the correct term. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.176.114.76 (talk) 01:23, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Spinosauroidea is a synonym of Megalosauroidea, so its not incorrect per se but its being used to refer to spinosaurs specifically. As opposed to other megalosaurs.--50.195.51.9 (talk) 17:40, 22 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Exactly; Megalosauroidae takes priority.142.176.114.76 (talk) 22:39, 20 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Just to note..

I've added the 2012 paper to a number of megaraptoran articles (this, Aerosteon, Fukuiraptor and the others, aside from Siats, because it wasn't included in the analysis), since I don't believe anybody has published a refutation of that cladistic analysis yet (correct me if I'm mistaken). (For clarification, the paper I added is F.E Novas et al. (2012); "Megaraptorans as members of an unexpected evolutionary radiation of tyrant-reptiles in Gondwana", so no confusion arises.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Raptormimus456 (talk • contribs) 15:38, 3 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

New picture of Megaraptor claw cast available

I just uploaded a picture of a Megaraptor claw that could be used in this article if it would be useful:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Megaraptor_claw_cast_with_ruler_scale.JPG

(I have minimal editing experience with Wikipedia, so sorry if this is not the right way to bring this image to the attention of people editing this page.)--Duffymeg (talk) 18:00, 27 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good, could you take one where the claw is turned the opposite way (curving downwards)? FunkMonk (talk) 18:05, 27 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Sure thing. Here you go:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Megaraptor_claw_cast_with_scale.JPG --Duffymeg (talk) 18:20, 27 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Cool, I think this could maybe replace the claw image in the article, which suffers from glare. FunkMonk (talk) 01:03, 28 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

When it lived

The article currently says that it lived in the Cenomanian. This was recently changed to Coniacian, which I capitalised after checking the cited sources. This has now been changed back to Cenomanian. The Novas paper (ref#1) says it comes from a Turonian to Coniacian formation. Paul (ref#2) goes for Late Turonian. Calvo et al. (ref#4) say upper Turonian to lower Coniacian. Benson et al. (ref#5) say specimens from two formations, Turonian to Coniacian and Turonian to Santonian. Porfiri et al (ref#8) say Turonian to Santonian (same formation and specimen as Benson et al). So, none of the sources say Cenomanian and they're all agreed on Turonian to Coniacian (or Santonian). There may be some confusion over the Megaraptorids, which have a longer range. I will update the article accordingly. Mikenorton (talk) 21:56, 12 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for checking this. The time bar on the Megaraptor Wikpedia page says its temporal range is 98 Ma which is in the Cenomanian. So it sounds like this might need to be changed then? 176.248.100.198 (talk) 16:31, 13 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It does, I meant to check that. I'll use some reasonable dates for the Late Turonian to Early Coniacian (92-88Ma). At least it gives a sense of the range, even if the limits are not precisely known. Mikenorton (talk) 17:32, 13 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Convergent evolution?

Should we put a paragraph on convergent evolution

Should you make up something or present unrelated, generalized waffle about the concept? No. Should you summarize an existing, reliable, published source that specifically discusses convergent evolution with regard to this genus? By all means. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 12:24, 12 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]