Integrating palaeoecology and morphology in theropod diversity estimation: A case from the Aptian-Albian of Tunisia

A reconstruction of the palaeoecology and environmental dynamics of the Bahariya Formation of Egypt

“…Both counts shows that spinosaurids sp was the most common taxa (albeit slightly in the case of Bahariya alone), irrespective of whether or not we are dealing with two separate species or two separate taxa This further validated the argument that the spinosaurids were the only year round occupant of these environment (Fanti et al 2014, Sales et al 2016, with the others being commuter predators entering the mangroves and river networks on occasion to hunt.…”

“…Thus Bahariya probably had a generalist population entering the mangroves and river networks from the mainland to take advantage of the abundant food supply, rather than being mangrove adapted taxa. The exception to this rule appears to be the spinosaurids which were adapted for coastal environments (Fanti et al 2014). …”

“…Such transgressions are also the reason for the rarity of abelisaurids (Fanti et al 2014;Sales et al 2016). While Benson et al (2012 suggest this was a result of Gondwana being divided into ecological bands as a result of climate, recent work shows that the situation is more complicated with ecological factors as well as climactic factors playing a role (Fanti et al 2014, Chiarenza & Cau 2016.…”

The distribution of dental features in non-avian theropod dinosaurs: Taxonomic potential, degree of homoplasy, and major evolutionary trends

“…Teeth, and particularly tooth enamel, are robust skeletal elements (Hillson, 2005), and most toothed theropods had 50 or more teeth that were replaced every one to two years (Fiorillo and Currie, 1994;Erickson, 1996). Consequently, theropod teeth are one of the most common fossils in terrestrial Mesozoic formations (e.g., Erickson, 1996;Smith et al, 2005;Blob and Badgley, 2007) and are constantly reported in the literature (e.g., Currie et al, 1990;Rauhut and Werner, 1995;Baszio, 1997;Zinke, 1998;Sankey et al, 2002;Sweetman, 2004;Maganuco et al, 2005;Vullo et al, 2007;Larson, 2008;Casal et al, 2009;Lubbe et al, 2009;Ősi et al, 2010;Han et al, 2011;Sues and Averianov, 2013;Larson and Currie, 2013;Richter et al, 2013;Torices et al, 2015;Kear et al, 2013;Madzia, 2014;Hendrickx and Mateus, 2014a;Cobos et al, 2014;Tavares et al, 2014;Fanti et al, 2014;Brusatte and Clark, 2015;Csiki-Sava et al, 2016;Gerke and Wings, 2016;Alonso et al, 2017;Malafaia et al, 2017a;Avrahami et al, 2018;Frederickson et al, 2018;…”

“…Isolated theropod teeth provide taphonomic, paleoenvironmental and paleoecological data (e.g., Briggs and Crowther, 2001;Amiot et al, 2004Amiot et al, , 2006Amiot et al, , 2009Amiot et al, , 2011Rogers et al, 2007;Fanti et al, 2014;Gerke and Wings, 2016;Hassler et al, 2018;Frederickson et al, 2018). They may also provide evidence for paleodiversity, biostratigraphy (i.e., temporal/geographic ranges of theropod taxa), and anatomical information on clades when articulated skeletal fossils are missing or poorly represented Larson et al, 2016).…”