Itemirus

Itemirus is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Turonian age of the Late Cretaceous period of Uzbekistan.

Itemirus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 91 Ma
↓
Reconstruction
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: †Dromaeosauridae
Clade: †Eudromaeosauria
Subfamily: †Dromaeosaurinae
Genus: †Itemirus
Kurzanov, 1976
Species:
†I. medullaris
Binomial name
†Itemirus medullaris
Kurzanov, 1976

Discovery
Rear of skull

Itemirus is known from a single small damaged fossil braincase or neurocranium, in 1958 found near the village of Itemir at the Dzharakuduk escarpment in layers of the Bissekty Formation. This holotype has accession number PIN 327/699. The type species, Itemirus medullaris, was named and described by Sergei Kurzanov in 1976. The generic name refers to Itemir. The specific name refers to the medulla oblongata, the brain part encased by the partial braincase.[1]

Classification

Kurzanov noted anatomical similarities to the Tyrannosauridae and the Dromaeosauridae; he assigned Itemirus to a separate Itemiridae. In 2004 Thomas Holtz suggested it was a member of the Tyrannosauroidea.[2] Nicholas Longrich and Philip J. Currie in 2009 included Itemirus in a cladistic analysis of internal dromaeosaurid relationships and found it to be a velociraptorine.[3] In 2014, during a study assigning more material to Itemirus, it was found that the genus could be placed in Dromaeosaurinae in a phylogeny.[4]

Eudromaeosauria
 

Bambiraptor

 
 
 

Saurornitholestes

 
Velociraptorinae
 

Deinonychus

 
 
 

Adasaurus

 
 
 

Velociraptor

 
 

Balaur

 
 
 
 
Dromaeosaurinae
 

Tsaagan

 
 
 

Dromaeosaurus

 
 

Atrociraptor

 
 

Utahraptor

 
 

Achillobator

 
 

Itemirus

 
 
 
 
 
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See also

References
  1. Kurzanov, S. M. (1976) Braincase structure in the carnosaur Itemirus n. gen. and some aspects of the cranial anatomy of dinosaurs. Paleontological Journal 10:361-369.
  2. Holtz, T.R., 2004, "Tyrannosauroidea". In: D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmolska (eds.), The Dinosauria (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley pp. 111-136
  3. Longrich, N.R. and Currie, P.J. (2009). "A microraptorine (Dinosauria–Dromaeosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of North America." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(13): 5002–5007. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0811664106
  4. Sues, H.-D.; Averianov, A. (2014). "Dromaeosauridae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Bissekty Formation (Upper Cretaceous: Turonian) of Uzbekistan and the phylogenetic position of Itemirus medullaris Kurzanov, 1976". Cretaceous Research. 51: 225–240. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2014.06.007.


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