Deltadromeus is now thought to be a noasaur, off the abelisaur family tree. From Africa, it's another really big theropod around 40 feet. But this one is differnent, it's very gracile, built for running. The head is based off of the other known noasaur species and might be incorrect, it's a best guess at this point.
Being an ableisaur it's strange in that it has long arms and is larger than any of it's other known relatives. I beleive Carnotaurus would be the second largest at around 25+ feet. So this animal was a giant for the group. It's theropod contemporraries include Carcharadontosaurus and Spinosaurus, also giants, so there seems to be a trend of giant theropods in mid cretaceous Africa. There are a few other large theropod remains fond at the sime time and same area but they are too scrappy to make good identifications. So perhaps there is a fourth group of large theropods running around Africa that we don't really know about;)
Best,
Brett
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You know that the abelisaur group Deltadromeus is currently in is Noasauridae, right? They're the long armed offshoot and are generally much smaller than the typical abelisaurid. Deltadromeus is really a scaled up model of these kinds of beasties.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, nice drawing. Deltadromeus is one of my favorites.
I thought I said that in the post:
ReplyDelete"Deltadromeus is now thought to be a noasaur, off the abelisaur family tree"
Wow, great picture! Love the spikes on the crest of the neck!
ReplyDelete~Sapphire Frost
Hey Brett!
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